The Man Who Took Leo to Barcelona: Jorge Messi Has Died

In June, the Messi family wrote the kind of statement no one wants to write twice. A hoax had spread online claiming Jorge Messi had died, and his relatives were forced to come out and confirm something they had not shared with the public until then: that Lionel Messi’s father was in the hospital and under medical supervision.

Now the real news has arrived. Jorge Messi died Friday evening, around 10 p.m., at a clinic in Rosario, the city where the family spent most of their lives. He was 68. The news was first reported by the Argentine outlet Infobae and picked up by Spain’s Marca. No official cause of death has been given, though Argentine media say he had been fighting an illness for some time.

He was the husband of Celia Cuccittini and the father of four children: Lionel, Rodrigo, Matias and Maria Sol.

From Newell’s to Barcelona, the road their father opened

The story football remembers him for begins on the pitches of Newell’s Old Boys, when Lionel was still a boy. He was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency, the treatment was expensive, and no solution was available in Rosario. Jorge was the one who pushed until that treatment was secured.

When Barcelona agreed to fund the therapy and take the boy into its academy, his father went with him to Spain. The rest of the family stayed behind in Argentina. Splitting the household across two continents was the price of a career that is now widely called the greatest the game has ever seen.

What was Jorge Messi to his son’s career?

He was not an agent who showed up once the boy became a star. He was there from Lionel’s first steps in football, and the role of agent grew naturally out of work he was already doing. Every major decision passed through his hands.

• the negotiations around leaving Barcelona, the most turbulent stretch of Leo’s career
• the move to Paris Saint-Germain
• the later deal that sent him to Inter Miami

For decades he also stayed out of the public eye. He gave only a handful of interviews, among them to Argentina’s El Grafico, Germany’s Kicker and Spain’s Informe Robinson. On social media he mostly posted about the achievements of his family, both his son and his grandchildren.

The family first spoke about his health in June of this year, and only after a false report forced their hand.

The Messi family wishes to inform that Jorge is going through a health issue. He is currently under medical supervision.

That statement came with a request that his privacy be respected and that unverified information not be spread further.

The sign that showed at the World Cup

Anyone watching who sat in the family box already had reason to suspect something. At the last World Cup, Jorge was missing from the family photos, unlike at every previous tournament. Standing with Lionel were his wife Antonela and their sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro.

At the time, Lionel himself broke down in tears when asked about his condition and spoke of difficult family circumstances without giving details. The answer to that question has only now arrived.

What happens next

As of this article’s publication, Lionel Messi and his family had not issued an official statement on their father’s death. No funeral date has been announced either.

There is also a question that does not get asked out loud at moments like this, but exists all the same: who will now handle contract talks. The arrangement in which the family made up the inner business circle of the best footballer in the world lasted for decades, a rarity in a sport where management work has long belonged to agencies. That model leaves with Jorge.

He will be remembered, in the end, for one decision. When a sick boy needed to be sent across the ocean, to a country where the family knew no one, with treatment that had to be paid for and a club that guaranteed nothing at the time, his father packed the bags and went with him. Everything that followed, Barcelona, Paris, Miami and the World Cup title, came after that.