5 Things You Must Know About Jorge Messi, the Father and Longtime Agent Who Shaped Lionel Messi’s Career

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Jorge Messi, the father and longtime agent of Argentina captain Lionel Messi, has died at 68, closing the chapter on a man whose decisions off the field helped shape one of the greatest careers in soccer history.

Jorge Messi died Saturday at a hospital in Rosario, the central Argentina city where his family is from, according to a statement from Newell’s Old Boys, the club where Lionel Messi came up as a boy. Newell’s said Jorge had undergone treatment in recent months for an unspecified illness. Here are five things to know about the man behind soccer’s biggest name.

1. He was Lionel Messi’s father — and, for decades, his agent.

Beyond his role as a parent, Jorge Messi served as his son’s primary business representative and negotiator for years, guiding contract talks, sponsorship deals and the family’s move from Rosario to Barcelona when Lionel was a teenager seeking treatment for a growth hormone deficiency. That move, which uprooted the family from Argentina, is widely credited as one of the pivotal decisions that allowed Lionel to develop at Barcelona’s famed youth academy, La Masia.

2. He was convicted of tax fraud alongside his son.

In 2016, a Spanish court found Jorge Messi and Lionel Messi guilty of defrauding the Spanish state of roughly 4.1 million euros in taxes on image-rights income between 2007 and 2009. Prosecutors said the pair used a network of shell companies based in Belize, Uruguay, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to shield the earnings. Lionel Messi was fined nearly €2 million and his father €1.5 million, on top of a €5 million “corrective payment” the family had already made to tax authorities. Both were sentenced to 21 months in prison, but because the terms fell under Spain’s two-year threshold for suspended sentences in first-time, non-violent cases, neither served time. On appeal, the Supreme Court reduced Jorge Messi’s sentence from 21 months to 15 months in recognition of his cooperation in returning the defrauded money, while Lionel’s conviction was upheld in full. At the time, both prosecutors in the case agreed that Jorge Messi, not his son, was the person primarily responsible for the fraud, though the tax authority’s own lawyer argued the footballer knew enough to share the blame.

3. He was at the center of a false death report that upended Argentine television months before he actually died.

In June 2026, ahead of Lionel Messi’s World Cup campaign, Argentine television host Florencia Peña incorrectly reported on air that Jorge Messi had died. Peña resigned from her position afterward, saying she had relied on bad information relayed to her through an earpiece and acknowledging she bore partial responsibility for the error. At the time, the Messi family released a statement saying Jorge was “under medical supervision, recovering, and progressing favorably within his current condition,” and asked for privacy, expressing what the family called “deep displeasure at the lack of sensitivity, respect, and scruples with which some people have treated a strictly private and family matter.” The episode fueled months of public speculation about the elder Messi’s true condition that continued through the World Cup itself.

4. His death drew tributes from soccer institutions across South America.

Newell’s Old Boys, the Rosario club with deep ties to the Messi family, described Jorge in its statement as “the pillar and the person who, with vision, rigor and affection, supported the career of the best player of all time, alongside his wife, Celia Cuccittini.” CONMEBOL, South American soccer’s governing body, also issued condolences, saying it offered its sympathies “with respect and affection for Lionel.” The tributes underscored how closely Jorge Messi’s identity became entwined with his son’s on-field legacy over more than two decades in professional soccer.

5. His death comes just months after Lionel Messi capped his international career with a World Cup run.

Lionel Messi led Argentina to a runner-up finish in this year’s World Cup, playing through the tournament as questions about his father’s health lingered in the background. In the team’s opening match against Algeria, Messi was visibly emotional after scoring the first of his three goals, a moment many observers connected to the private toll his father’s illness was taking on the family. Jorge Messi had long been a fixture in the stands at his son’s matches, a constant presence that fans and broadcasters often noted during broadcasts of Lionel’s biggest games, from Barcelona to the Argentina national team to Inter Miami.

Funeral arrangements had not been publicly announced as of Saturday evening. Lionel Messi, who has not yet issued a personal statement, is expected to return to Rosario in the coming days, according to local reporting. He is survived by his wife, Celia Cuccittini, and his sons, including Lionel, Rodrigo and Matías Messi.