Lionel Messi, captain of the Argentine football team, and FIFA president Joseph Blatter paid their last respects Friday to Julio Grondona, at his funeral in Buenos Aires.
Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association since 1979, and senior vice president of FIFA, died Wednesday aged 82 after suffering a heart attack. Messi had been on holiday with his family on the coast of Italy close to Amalfi when he learned of Grondona's death.
"It is a very sad day for football, for Argentina and for me. Our AFA president, Julio Grondona, has left us. I would like to send my condolences to his family and friends," Messi wrote in Facebook. Meanwhile, Blatter said of Grondona: "He was a friend for life, his passing away is an enormous loss for world football."
Grondona was buried at a cemetery in Avellaneda, to the south of Buenos Aires, next to his wife Nelida Pariani, who died two years ago.