Lionel Messi buried his father, Jorge, in a tightly private ceremony near Rosario at the weekend, days after the man who shaped and managed his entire career died at 68 following a long illness.

Jorge Messi died in the early hours of Saturday, August 8, at a Rosario medical facility. He was laid to rest the following day at the El Prado Cementerio Parque in Pérez, on the city's outskirts, in a funeral closed to the public and guarded by heavy security. Only close family and a small number of Messi's Argentina teammates were present.

Messi flew in from the United States on a private jet, arriving with his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, and their three children. His mother, Celia Cuccittini, and siblings Rodrigo, Matías and María Sol were also there to say goodbye, according to reports from Rosario.

Jorge was far more than a parent to Argentina's captain. He was, in effect, the architect of his son's entire professional life — negotiating the move to Barcelona's academy when Leo was just 13, securing the growth-hormone treatment that let a small boy from Rosario become the player he did, and running his business affairs as his formal agent for two decades.

In a lengthy, emotional post on Instagram after the death, Messi wrote of his fear that he might not be able to carry on in football without his father beside him. "I only played football, and now I have serious doubts whether I can continue," he wrote, according to ONE's report of the tribute, adding that Jorge had been "a father, friend and agent" who was "always the right person at every moment."

"Dad, I still can't believe you have gone," Messi wrote, in quotes carried by ESPN. "It is difficult to imagine that I won't see you again; that we won't speak anymore."

Jorge's illness shadowed what was expected to be Messi's final World Cup this past June and July. "You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times, and just before it started was when you were at your worst," Messi wrote. "It was the first time you were not at a tournament, but mum told me you would get better and you would be able to travel." It never happened — the tournament in North America was the first of his career his father did not attend in person.

False rumours of Jorge's death had already swept social media during the World Cup, on the same day Messi scored in Argentina's opening group match. The family was forced to issue a statement at the time asking for privacy, calling the false reports "a lack of sensitivity."

Messi said he intends to honour his father by raising his own children the way Jorge raised him, promising he "will miss him so much" but that he will "always be present," especially in the upbringing of his three sons.

Tributes poured in from across football following the news, with Barcelona, Argentina's federation (AFA) and countless former teammates paying respect to a man who spent most of his adult life almost entirely out of the spotlight, despite steering the career of the sport's most decorated player.