{"id":33272,"date":"2026-08-08T21:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33272"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:43:43","slug":"jorge-messi-father-of-soccer-legend-lionel-dies-at-age-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33272","title":{"rendered":"Jorge Messi, father of soccer legend Lionel, dies at age 68"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-fd74b2\" class=\"body-graf\">Jorge Messi, a constant presence in the stands at his son Lionel\u2019s matches, has died at age 68 after a long illness, according to a statement from the hospital that treated him. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e08b0b\" class=\"body-graf\">The Argentinian businessman worked as a steel executive and managed his son\u2019s career for decades. His illness became a topic of discussion during the 2026 World Cup, when his family acknowledged a health situation as Lionel competed. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-65b23e\" class=\"body-graf\">Argentina lost to Spain in the July 19 final. Lionel Messi, 39, had attributed his emotional displays early in the tournament to a family situation.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii\" id=\"anchor-116ab6\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"1665\" data-original-width=\"2500\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1116-20fcbe.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1116-20fcbe.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1116-20fcbe.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1116-20fcbe.jpg 1x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1116-20fcbe.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge Messi and Lionel Messi.\" height=\"1665\" width=\"2500\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Messi, in Barcelona in 2016.<\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">Joan Cros \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-1dee21\" class=\"body-graf\">The hospital, Sanatorio Centro, announced Jorge Messi\u2019s death through its medical director but declined to disclose the nature of his illness.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-67d0bb\" class=\"body-graf\">He died around 2 a.m. on Saturday, according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-49f4d7\" class=\"body-graf\">Jorge Messi had long been involved with UNICEF, the international humanitarian aid organization, according to the organization.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b9fecd\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWe regret the passing of Jorge Messi, father of our Goodwill Ambassador Lionel Messi and a person always committed to the rights of boys and girls and a benefactor of @unicef,\u201d UNICEF wrote Saturday morning in a post on X. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jorge Messi, a constant presence in the stands at his son Lionel\u2019s matches, has died at age 68 after a long illness, according to a statement from the hospital that treated him. The Argentinian businessman worked as a steel executive and managed his son\u2019s career for decades. His illness became a topic of discussion during&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260808-jorge-messi-ch-1115-a080b5.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}