{"id":43284,"date":"2026-08-20T14:53:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43284"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:53:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:53:47","slug":"messi-scores-emotional-first-goal-since-fathers-death","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/messi-scores-emotional-first-goal-since-fathers-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi scores emotional first goal since father&#8217;s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Lionel Messi scored his first goal since the \u200bdeath of his father earlier this \u200cmonth in Inter Miami&#8217;s 2-2 draw with Philadelphia Union on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Messi&#8217;s father and longtime representative Jorge died aged 68 on \u200bAugust 8 in Rosario, Argentina.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the \u200b26th minute at Subaru Park, Messi \u2060shook off his marker and sent \u200ba left-footed shot into the net to give \u200bMiami a 2-1 first-half lead before being embraced by his teammates.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 39-year-old also assisted on his \u200bteam&#8217;s first goal on a hot \u200band humid night in Pennsylvania.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Messi paid an emotional tribute to \u200chis \u2060father last week, saying he did not know how to continue without him.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The draw ended a three-game losing streak for \u200bdefending MLS \u200bCup \u2060champions Miami. The goal was Messi&#8217;s 13th of the season, putting him \u200bone behind Dallas striker Petar \u200bMusa \u2060in the race for the MLS Golden Boot, which he won last season.<\/div>\n<div>\nMessi also captained Argentina \u2060to \u200bthis year&#8217;s World Cup \u200bfinal, where they lost to Spain.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14870,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-43284","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Messi paid an emotional tribute to \u200chis \u2060father last week, saying he did not know how to continue without him.","published_date":"","news_description":"Messi paid an emotional tribute to \u200chis \u2060father last week, saying he did not know how to continue without him.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43285,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43284\/revisions\/43285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}