![\"Jorge](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1450220173.jpg\")
Jorge Messi, father of soccer star Lionel Messi, died at the age of 68. Getty Images<\/p>\nJorge Messi, the father of soccer great Lionel Messi, died Friday night at a clinic in Rosario, Argentina after a long battle with an illness, according to multiple Argentine and Spanish outlets.<\/p>\n
He was 68.<\/p>\n
Jorge Messi\u2019s battle with illness became a story during the World Cup that saw his son\u2019s Argentina squad lose 1-0 to Spain in the final. <\/p>\n
Jorge Messi, father of soccer star Lionel Messi, died at the age of 68. Getty Images<\/p>\n
A cause of death was not immediately given.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi told former Argentina teammate Juan Pablo Sorin during an interview in June that his tearful displays of emotion during the tournament were about a family situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is that for the family more than anything,\u201d Lionel Messi said. \u201cBecause, well, it\u2019s always there, it\u2019s always there. Now we are in a difficult moment. So many things came together, but obviously also because of them \u2013 a spectacular group that supports me \u2013 it makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day later, the family released a statement<\/a> revealing Jorge Messi was ill, was \u201cunder medical monitoring,\u201d and his recovery was \u201cevolving favorably\u201d at the time after report be an Argentine TV host<\/a> that he had died. <\/p>\n Jorge Messi played a key role in influencing the shape of his son\u2019s early career and moving to Barcelona, and was a key confidant throughout his life.<\/p>\n Lionel Messi currently plays for Inter Miami FC in MLS.<\/p>\n Jorge Messi is survived by wife Cecila, sons Lionel, Rodrigo, and Matias, daughter Maria Sol, and numerous grandchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Messi, the father of soccer great Lionel Messi, died Friday night at a clinic in Rosario, Argentina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[6865,10756,403,99],"class_list":["post-806934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-lionel-messi","tag-obituaries","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Argentina's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1245709634.jpg\")
Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi with his father Jorge Messi after the award ceremony of the 2022 World Cup. dpa\/picture alliance via Getty I<\/p>\n