He was a steelworker once, a youth midfielder at a provincial Argentine club, a father who made a decision that changed football history. Jorge Messi died at approximately 10 p.m. local time on 7 August 2026 at a medical clinic in Rosario, Argentina. He was 68. His wife Celia and their children Rodrigo, Matias, and Maria Sol were at his side.
The announcement came first from Newell's Old Boys — the Rosario club where Jorge had played as a young man and where his son Lionel took his earliest steps in the game — in a social media post. The family confirmed the death to Reuters. The cause has not been disclosed. The medical facility cited privacy as its reason for withholding clinical details, according to CNN.
Jorge had spent his final months moving between the clinic and his home in Rosario. The illness had kept him away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where Argentina reached the final. In June, as the tournament was underway, his family issued a statement saying he was under medical supervision and described as recovering and progressing favourably within his current condition, according to USA Today. He did not recover fully. Lionel visited his father in Rosario after the World Cup concluded before returning to the United States the week prior to Jorge's death, Bleacher Report reported.
Jorge Messi's life was bound to his son's from the beginning. He was Lionel's first coach in Argentina. When Lionel, as a child, was offered the chance to train with FC Barcelona in Spain, Jorge made the journey with him — the two of them alone in an unfamiliar city, building the foundation of what would become one of sport's most celebrated careers. Yahoo Sports described Jorge as his son's sole companion during those early years in Barcelona.
He never stopped being the person closest to Lionel's professional life. Jorge served as his agent through every major contract negotiation: the landmark deals with Barcelona, then Paris Saint-Germain, then Inter Miami in Major League Soccer. He also managed Lionel's image rights and oversaw a range of investments in real estate, hotels, and restaurants, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Before any of that, Jorge Messi had been a steelworker in Rosario. He played as a youth midfielder at Newell's Old Boys, the same club whose name appears on the statement that announced his death. The symmetry was not incidental. Rosario shaped him, and he carried it with him through decades spent negotiating in the offices of European football's most powerful institutions.
Lionel Messi, widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time and an eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, was based at Inter Miami at the time of his father's death. No public statement from Lionel had been reported at the time of writing. Jorge Messi leaves behind his wife and four children. The specific nature of his illness was not disclosed by the family or the clinic.
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