Lionel Messi attended the private funeral of his father and lifelong agent, Jorge Messi, at the El Prado cemetery in the town of Perez, near Rosario, Argentina, on Sunday. Jorge Messi passed away in the early hours of Saturday at a clinic in Rosario, at the age of 68. The cause of death was not officially disclosed, though local Argentine media, including the newspaper Clarín, reported he had been battling cancer. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner flew from Miami on a private jet with his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, and their children, landing in Rosario — his hometown in the province of Santa Fe, around 340 kilometres north of Buenos Aires — at 8:40 p.m. local time on Saturday.
The ceremony was held in strict privacy. The gates of El Prado cemetery, closed to the public, bore handwritten notes left by fans since Saturday: "Stay strong, Leo, we love you" and "Stay strong, Messi family," alongside a large floral wreath. Several of Messi's Argentina teammates who are based in the country expressed their intention to accompany their captain. "It will surely do him good for us to be there," said Leandro Paredes, the Boca Juniors midfielder, after his team's match on Saturday. Rodrigo de Paul, a close friend of Messi and his teammate at Inter Miami, also travelled to Argentina after paying a poignant on-pitch tribute — scoring in a 2-1 defeat to Monterrey and revealing a Messi number 10 shirt beneath his own jersey in his friend's honour.
Jorge Messi was far more than a father. A metalworker in Rosario, he also coached youth teams at the small local club Grandoli, giving his son his first taste of football at the age of four on the rough, uneven vacant lots — known as potreros — where Argentine children played. When FC Barcelona invited the 13-year-old Lionel to Catalonia in 2000 to continue treatment for a growth hormone deficiency while joining the club's youth academy, Jorge left behind his job, his wife Celia, and his three other children to move to Spain with his son. "When we arrived in Barcelona, I used to lock myself in my room to cry alone, and my father did the same — either without me seeing him, or thinking I didn't see him. We pretended we were both fine, but we were struggling," Messi later recalled. Jorge went on to negotiate his son's major contracts, acting as his sole representative at Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Inter Miami.
Jorge's health had quietly cast a shadow over Argentina's campaign at the World Cup in June, where his unusual absence from the stands drew attention. After scoring against Algeria and breaking down in tears, Messi acknowledged he had been dealing with "a situation outside of sports" and that he had gone through "a few difficult, complicated days." The family later issued a statement saying Jorge was receiving medical care and "evolving favourably." Following Argentina's defeat in the World Cup final against Spain, Messi returned to Rosario to spend time with his father before rejoining Inter Miami.
Tributes poured in from across the football world. FC Barcelona, where Messi spent the defining years of his career from his debut in 2004 until 2021, said the club was grateful to Jorge "for his commitment to our club and for his trust in us at the beginning and during the most glorious years" of his son's career. Real Madrid, Newell's Old Boys — the Rosario club where Messi first developed — and the Spanish Football Federation all sent messages of condolence. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) ordered a minute of silence before matches across all levels of the game for the week, with players, coaches, and referees wearing black armbands throughout.