Just a few days after his father’s passing, it was unclear if Lionel Messi would play for Inter Miami against Club León Wednesday night. But as Inter Miami’s number 10 walked on the pitch, fans erupted and cheered for the return of Messi.

Jorge Messi died after an uphill battle with an unspecified illness at the age of 68 Saturday. As a result, Messi took a leave of absence in order to travel back home and be with his family during this difficult time. It was then that Messi expressed on his social media pages that he now has doubts about continuing his career without his father by his side.

In a moment of turmoil and doubt for Messi and an indefinite leave of absence, the last thing most fans expected was to have him appear during Wednesday night’s game against León, just a few days after his father’s death.

The Major League Soccer (MLS) uploaded a video from the Leagues Cup match where you can see Messi getting ready to walk on the pitch during the second half, an event met with complete fan eruption and cheers with even one of the commentators saying, “You can already hear it, everybody’s just blown away to see the greatest of all time again today.”

Messi then started to jog as the screams and celebrations followed him onto the pitch.

Fans commented under the post with heartfelt messages directed towards Messi, with one fan saying, “Buried his father 2 days ago and he still came to play football just to make the fans happy, I love you so much Leo.”

Another user commented, “Loved the emotions of fans, literally I am crying watching this video. Love and support to you my idol,” under the post.

The MLS captioned this video with a powerful message, one that the fans cheers echoed, “We missed you, Messi. Welcome back.”

Even though Inter Miami went on to lose the game, Wednesday’s match was clearly more than just winning or losing to the fanbase.

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