By Stephen Zogopoulos, USNN World News
There are moments when sports become secondary.
Trophies do not matter. Records do not matter. Stadiums fall silent.
Family matters.
Today, I want to extend my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy to Lionel Messi, his mother Celia Cuccittini, his brothers Rodrigo and Matías, his sister María Sol, Lionel’s wife Antonela Roccuzzo, their children Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, and the entire Messi family following the death of Jorge Messi.
Jorge Messi died in Rosario, Argentina, at the age of 68 after undergoing treatment in recent months for an undisclosed illness. His passing brings an end to a remarkable life whose influence reached far beyond the public role for which millions of football fans knew him.
He was Lionel Messi’s agent.
But he was a father first.
And perhaps that is where the story of Jorge Messi should begin.
Long before Lionel Messi became a World Cup champion, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and an international symbol of football excellence, there was a young boy from Rosario with extraordinary ability and an uncertain future.
Jorge saw what his son might become.
More importantly, he stood beside him while that future was anything but guaranteed.
Jorge Messi was a chemical technician and steelworker who had also played football himself, reaching the youth ranks of Newell’s Old Boys before leaving the sport to complete mandatory military service. He eventually became one of the most consequential fathers in modern sporting history—not because he scored the goals himself, but because of what he was willing to do for the child who eventually would.
When Lionel was young and faced a growth hormone deficiency requiring costly treatment, his family’s circumstances presented an enormous obstacle.
Jorge did not surrender to that obstacle.
He searched for a way forward.
And when that road eventually pointed thousands of miles away from Argentina, Jorge was willing to take it.
Lionel was only 13 when father and son traveled to Barcelona seeking the opportunity that could change his life. Jorge accompanied him to the trial that opened the doors to FC Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy.
Think about that for a moment—not as football history, but as parenthood.
A father taking his young son away from everything familiar because he believed deeply enough in the boy’s ability to risk the uncertainty of what came next.
There was no guarantee of eight Ballon d’Or trophies.
There was no guarantee of Barcelona championships.
There was no guarantee of a World Cup.
There was simply a father, a son and a dream.
It is easy, looking backward, to make destiny appear inevitable.
It wasn’t.
Lionel Messi himself once described the emotional difficulty of those early days in Barcelona. Both father and son struggled with homesickness. Lionel recalled that each sometimes cried privately while trying to appear strong for the other. Jorge even asked his son whether he wanted to return home.
Lionel chose to stay.
And Jorge stayed with him.
That tells us something about the man.
Supporting someone’s dream is easy when that dream is succeeding.
Supporting it when your child is scared, homesick and thousands of miles from home is something entirely different.
Jorge did not merely tell his son to pursue greatness.
He accompanied him into the uncertainty required to find it.
The rest became football history.
As Lionel’s career exploded onto the world stage, Jorge’s role evolved.
He became his son’s longtime representative and agent, negotiating contracts and overseeing significant aspects of Lionel’s business affairs.
He represented Lionel through an unprecedented era at Barcelona, later through his move to Paris Saint-Germain, and eventually through another historic chapter with Inter Miami in the United States. He also helped manage Lionel’s image rights and business investments.
Those responsibilities placed Jorge in some of the most complex negotiations in world football.
Yet his relationship with the man at the center of those negotiations was unlike that of almost any conventional sports agent.
The superstar was his son.
Jorge had known Lionel before anyone knew what the name “Messi” would eventually mean to world sport.
Before the commercial contracts, endorsements, television audiences and international expectations, he had been there at the beginning.
That perspective cannot be purchased, negotiated or manufactured.
Jorge’s life also cannot be understood solely through Lionel’s career.
Alongside his wife, Celia Cuccittini, Jorge raised four children—Rodrigo, Matías, Lionel and María Sol—in Rosario.
The public understandably focuses upon Lionel because of his extraordinary accomplishments, but the Messi story has always been a family story.
Newell’s Old Boys, announcing Jorge’s death, recognized both Jorge and Celia for the role they played in supporting Lionel’s career with vision, discipline and affection.
That matters.
Behind almost every extraordinary public accomplishment are private relationships the world rarely gets to witness: meals together, difficult conversations, sacrifices, disagreements, celebrations, fears, ordinary days and decisions nobody outside the family ever sees.
Jorge and Celia lived through all of it.
They knew Lionel before the world did.
And they watched their son travel farther than almost anyone could have imagined when he was kicking a football around Rosario as a child.
There was another privilege Jorge lived long enough to experience.
He became a grandfather.
Lionel and Antonela Roccuzzo’s three sons—Thiago, Mateo and Ciro—gave Jorge the opportunity to watch another generation of the family grow.
Lionel returned to Argentina following his father’s death accompanied by Antonela and their three boys for the family’s private farewell.
There is something deeply moving about that image.
The boy Jorge once accompanied across the Atlantic eventually became a father himself.
The young player whose future Jorge fought to protect eventually raised three sons of his own.
And Jorge was able to witness it.
He saw his son become a husband.
He saw him become a father.
He saw him become a world champion.
He saw him lift football’s greatest prize for Argentina in 2022.
And he saw the little boy from Rosario become a man admired around the world.
Whatever statistics history records about Lionel Messi, those may have been among Jorge Messi’s greatest victories.
Lionel Messi’s accomplishments belong to Lionel Messi.
His genius cannot simply be attributed to another person.
But nobody reaches the summit entirely alone.
Behind the iconic No. 10 stood parents who believed in him when there were no guarantees.
Behind the global superstar stood a father willing to leave Argentina with his 13-year-old son.
Behind decades of contracts, transfers and career-changing decisions stood the man who had been there before any contract existed.
And behind Lionel Messi the footballer stood Jorge Messi the father.
Argentina’s football federation president Claudio Tapia paid tribute to Jorge by highlighting something more important than goals or trophies: the values with which his son was raised—humility, respect and commitment to others. Argentine football also honored Jorge with moments of silence and black armbands.
That may ultimately be one of the most meaningful measures of a father’s life.
Not simply what his children achieve.
But who his children become.
Lionel has given millions of people around the world moments they will remember for the rest of their lives.
He has made children dream.
He has made adults feel like children again.
He has brought joy to Barcelona, Argentina, Miami and football supporters across nearly every border imaginable.
But grief does not recognize fame.
There is no Ballon d’Or for this moment.
There is no stadium large enough to make the loss of a father smaller.
There is simply a son who has lost his dad.
From all of us at USNN World News, and from me personally, I extend our deepest sympathy to Lionel Messi and the entire Messi family.
To Celia, who has lost her husband.
To Jorge’s children, who have lost their father.
To Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, who have lost their grandfather.
And especially to Lionel, who has lost the man who stood beside him before the rest of the world ever knew his name.
The world will remember Jorge Messi because he was the father and representative of one of the greatest athletes who ever lived.
His family will remember something much more important.
Dad.
Husband.
Grandfather.
Family.
Those titles never appear on a trophy.
They are worth infinitely more.
Rest in peace, Jorge Messi.
And to Lionel and the entire Messi family:
May the extraordinary memories of a life shared together eventually bring comfort to a family experiencing an immeasurable loss.
— Stephen Zogopoulos, USNN World News
DISCLAIMER
This article is an opinion and editorial tribute written by Stephen Zogopoulos of USNN World News. It is based upon publicly reported and independently reviewed factual information available as of August 10, 2026. Commentary, reflections, interpretations and expressions of sympathy represent the author’s opinion. USNN World News is not affiliated with Lionel Messi, the Messi family, Inter Miami CF, FC Barcelona, the Argentine Football Association, FIFA or any other organization referenced in this article. This article is intended solely as a respectful tribute and expression of condolence.
