father of football star Lionel \u2060Messi<\/a>, died on \u2060Friday night at the age of 68 at a medical clinic in the Argentinian city of \u2060Rosario after a long illness, the footballer\u2019s family confirmed to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\nJorge spent his final months alternating between a \u2060medical centre in Rosario and his home, accompanied by his wife Celia and his children Rodrigo, Matias and Maria Sol, the family said.<\/p>\n
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Lionel Messi spent time with his father after \u200cthe World Cup before rejoining his club, Inter Miami, for whom he returned to action a week ago.<\/p>\n
Jorge closely accompanied his son Lionel throughout his career, beginning with his early years at Barcelona. He acted as a crucial pillar of support and, for several years, \u2060served as his representative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always needed my \u2060dad\u2019s approval, ever since I was a kid. After every match, I\u2019d ask him what he thought of how I played,\u201d the football \u2060star said previously.<\/p>\n
The eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner\u2019s childhood club Newell\u2019s Old Boys paid tribute to Jorge Messi in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis constant companionship and behind-the-scenes leadership were essential in backing every step of Lionel,\u201d Newell\u2019s Old Boys said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
During the World Cup, the captain of the Argentinian national team \u2060experienced mixed emotions after scoring a hat-trick in the opening match against Algeria, breaking down in tears while celebrating his first goal.<\/p>\n
Later, at a news conference, Lionel explained that his \u200ctears were due to \u201csomething unrelated to football\u201d after going through \u201ca few difficult, complicated days\u201d.<\/p>\n
Days later, the family issued a \u200cstatement regarding Jorge\u2019s \u201chealth situation\u201d, informing the public that he was undergoing medical treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Messi died at a medical clinic in the Argentinian city of \u2060Rosario, according to his family. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9877,4118,85,46,16632,43,2224,105],"class_list":["post-578757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-football","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}