Leo Messi's father, key figure in the Argentine star's career, dies at 68

Jorge Messi, the father and agent of global soccer star Lionel Messi, died at age 68 in a hospital in Rosario, his hometown north of Buenos Aires, where he had been hospitalized for several weeks to receive treatment for a long-standing illness. Newell's Old Boys, the club where Leo played in his early days, broke the news.

"Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys bids a farewell, with deep sorrow and grief, to Jorge Messi, who passed away at the age of 68 in the city of Rosario," the Rosario-based club posted on social media. According to Argentine media reports, the star's father died on Friday night.

A key figure

Jorge Messi was a key figure throughout his son's career. He was his first coach on the "potreros"—as the vacant lots converted into makeshift fields are known—and his only teammate during his tough early days at Barcelona, before becoming his agent and negotiating astronomical contracts.

Jorge was also the person with whom the star chose to discuss his performance after every game: "My old man helped me a lot. He's very critical of me. That's what always made me want to improve," said the Argentine icon in a 2022 interview with DirecTV Sports

The Argentine Professional Soccer League (LPF) also offered its condolences: "In this difficult moment as we say goodbye to Jorge Messi, the LPF community and the entire soccer world bid him farewell with love and embrace his family and loved ones. Stay strong, Leo!" it wrote on X.

From the metalworking industry to the upper echelon of world soccer

Jorge Messi, born in 1958, was a steelworker who loved soccer, and served as a youth coach at the neighborhood club Grandoli in his hometown of Rosario, 340 km north of Buenos Aires. There, he was the first coach of his son Lionel Messi, who was four years old at the time.

But his life took a turn in 2000 when he moved to Spain so that the then-13-year-old Lionel could join Barcelona and continue his treatment for growth hormone deficiency.

Jorge: Messi's sole source of support during his difficult early days in Barcelona

Jorge left his stable job in Argentina to face that challenge alongside Lionel, far from the rest of the family, during difficult times that forged the character of the "No. 10" and the bond between the two of them.

"I'd lock myself in my room to cry alone when we arrived in Barcelona, and my dad would do the same—either without me seeing him or thinking I didn't see him. We pretended we were both okay, but we weren't," Messi said in an interview when he was 20.

"My dad even asked me what I wanted to do when things were tough, if I wanted to stay or go back, and I wanted to stay, so he stayed with me," he said at the time.

First contract with Barcelona

Eventually, Jorge managed to secure the first contract with Barcelona, and from then on he accompanied his son as his agent and negotiator throughout his entire career at that club, as well as at Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami.

A low-profile figure, Jorge Messi gave almost no interviews throughout his life, but on the few occasions he spoke, he made it clear that his bond with his son was unbreakable: "The day Leo stops playing, I think a dream of mine will come crashing down, and I won't watch soccer anymore," he told Kicker magazine in 2013.

Controversies

However, his life was not without controversy.

In 2013, the father and son were accused by Spanish authorities of having used, between 2007 and 2009, a network of companies in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belize and Uruguay to channel Leo Messi's image rights while avoiding paying taxes. The case was resolved in 2017 after several multimillion-dollar fines, but without any prison time for either of them.

In 2019, Jorge and Lionel, along with the Leo Messi Foundation, were once again charged in Spain, this time for alleged tax evasion, fraud and money laundering. In 2021, the case was dismissed.

Lionel has three siblings: two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and a younger sister, María Sol, all children of Jorge Messi and Celia Cuccittini, 66.