Jorge Horacio Messi died at Sanatorio Centro, a private clinic in his home city of Rosario, Argentina. He was 68. The clinic's medical director said in a statement that the family would be spared further detail about the circumstances of his death, adding only that the hospital stood with the family during a difficult time.
An illness the family kept private through the World Cup
Word that something was wrong with Jorge first reached the public in mid-June, during Argentina's opening match of the 2026 World Cup. Lionel Messi scored all three goals in a 3-0 win over Algeria in Kansas City, a hat trick that pulled him level with Miroslav Klose's all-time World Cup scoring mark — yet he left the field visibly shaken. Asked about it afterward, he told reporters the emotion had nothing to do with the match itself, saying only that he had been through "difficult, complicated days." Within days, the family broke its silence, confirming Jorge was being treated for a condition they chose not to name and describing his progress as encouraging. He never made it to a stadium that summer. Argentina went on to lose the July 19 final to Spain, and Messi flew directly to Rosario afterward rather than returning straight to club duty.
Tributes pour in from across the sport
News of the death drew a wave of statements from nearly every club and body tied to Messi's career. Newell's Old Boys, the Rosario club where a young Lionel first played, said Jorge had backed his son's rise with "vision, rigor, and affection." CONMEBOL, South American soccer's governing body, sent its condolences to the family, while Argentina's football federation, led by president Claudio Tapia, ordered a minute of silence and black armbands at every match nationwide this week and praised Jorge for raising a son grounded in humility and respect. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami — the four clubs that have shaped or currently employ Lionel — each issued their own messages of support, an unusual show of unity from clubs that are normally fierce rivals. UNICEF, where Jorge had long served as a benefactor tied to his son's role as goodwill ambassador, remembered him as someone "always committed to the rights of boys and girls."
From the factory floor to his son's contracts
Long before he negotiated deals worth tens of millions of dollars, Jorge trained as a chemical technician and spent years working at Acindar, an Argentine steel company, gradually working his way up to a supervisory role rather than starting out as any kind of company executive. Everything changed in 2000, when Barcelona invited a 13-year-old Lionel to trial at its famed La Masia academy and agreed to cover the cost of the growth-hormone treatment he needed. Jorge made the move to Spain with his son that year, while the rest of the family joined roughly a year later. From there, he became Lionel's full-time representative, steering every major contract from Barcelona through Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami, along with image-rights deals and a portfolio of hospitality investments back home in Argentina.
That closeness came with real legal consequences. Spanish prosecutors accused father and son of funneling roughly €4.1 million in image-rights income earned between 2007 and 2009 through shell companies in Belize, Uruguay and Switzerland to dodge Spanish taxes. Contrary to an earlier, interim account of the case, it did not end with Lionel walking away clean — a Barcelona court convicted both men on three counts of tax fraud in July 2016, handing each a suspended prison sentence and a fine. Messi appealed, and Spain's Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2017, ultimately converting both sentences into fines rather than jail time.
The family he leaves behind
Jorge is survived by his wife, Celia Cuccittini, and their four children — Lionel, his older brothers Rodrigo and Matías, and younger sister María Sol. Looking back years ago on the loneliest stretch of those early days in Barcelona, Lionel once said simply that "my dad was always by my side," recalling how each of them had quietly hidden their own homesickness so the other wouldn't worry. Messi returned to competitive action last week, scoring twice for Inter Miami in a Leagues Cup win over Atlético San Luis — his first goals since the World Cup final — and passing Denis Bouanga to become the tournament's all-time leading scorer in the process. No funeral arrangements had been made public as of Saturday afternoon.
