DALLAS (AP) — Lionel Messi's father is undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness and his family asked the media for “humanity” on Thursday amid rumors about Jorge Messi's health while his son competes at the World Cup.
The family did not specify the illness that the 68-year-old Jorge Messi is suffering from.
“Jorge is going through a health situation,” the Messi family said in a statement. “He is currently under medical observation, recovering and progressing favorably within his current condition.”
The 38-year-old Messi said after Argentina's 3-0 victory over Algeria in the team's opening World Cup match that he was going through a difficult personal situation. He was very emotional after scoring the first of his three goals, which allowed him to equal Miroslav Klose as the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals.
“My tears after the first goal? I’ve had some tough days. It wasn’t related to soccer. And those feelings were because of that,” Messi said. “I thank my teammates, the coaching staff and the delegation for helping me.”
The family statement, released by Messi’s media office, came on the same day that reports of Jorge Messi’s death circulated in Argentina.
“At times like these, we ask for responsibility, prudence and humanity,” the family said. “A person’s health and the peace of mind of their loved ones should not be the subject of speculation or irresponsible media interest.”
The statement said any further developments would be communicated by the family.
Jorge Messi played a key role in his third son’s soccer career, acting as his agent and managing his business affairs off the field.
He accompanied the young Messi to Barcelona in the early 2000s for a tryout at La Masia, the Spanish club’s youth academy.
His father also negotiated Messi's contracts with Barcelona and then his transfers to Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami, while also managing his son’s image rights and several investments in real estate, hotels and restaurants.
In 2016, Messi and his father were convicted in Spain on tax evasion charges but avoided prison time because the sentence was less than two years.
While Messi is with his teammates at Argentina's base camp in Kansas City awaiting their second group match against Austria on Monday in Dallas, his family expressed their “sincere gratitude for the outpouring of affection, respect and concern received.”
“We request that the privacy and confidentiality of Jorge and his entire family be respected during this process,” the statement said.
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
Argentina's Lionel Messi gestures to fans following the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) celebrates after scoring his third goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
ILORIN, Kwara (AP) — Some of the 163 kidnapped Nigerians rescued from jihadi captivity have spoken of the suffering and fear they lived in for six months.
The freed captives, mostly women and children, were among over 300 kidnap victims freed by Nigerian forces this week.
They were handed over to the authorities by security forces in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, on Friday for medical attention and routine checks, and were anticipating their return home to reunite with their families.
Mary Ishaya recalled days without food, and being asked alongside others to bury other hostages who died in captivity.
The 44-year-old, who had never touched a dead body or buried one before, said: “I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering.”
The Nigerians were abducted on Feb. 3 when jihadi militants stormed the village of Woro, killing over 160 others.
In the hospital where they were receiving medical attention, the freed captives looked emaciated with many laying on the floor, barely able to stand, while others had injuries and emotional scars from their ordeal. Some of the women were informed that their husbands had been among those killed during the February attack.
Some told The Associated Press how they had given up on any hope of returning home. Others recounted people falling sick, being beaten by the rain, and told to hide whenever Nigerian military helicopters flew over the forest hideouts where the captors held them.
Amira Saliu, a nurse who was among those freed, said she helped about 10 pregnant women deliver their babies in the forests.
“I had no choice but to use my bare hands,” she said.
Locals in Woro said they suspected the killings and kidnapping were a punishment for their resistance to the preachings of the jihadis.
Hauwa Saliu recalled how the captors constantly asked the abductees if they had accepted those preachings. Saliu, whose husband was killed in the attack, said she refused to accept them.
“We prayed to God to help us go back home, but it never really crossed our minds that we were going to go back home,” the 30-year-old said.
February's attack was one of the deadliest in Nigeria in recent years, and showed how militants who had previously focused their activities in the north are moving south through Africa’s most populous nation, where gangs compete for territory and control of natural resources in villages where they outnumber the country’s overstretched security forces.
The U.S. is providing military support to Nigeria under an agreement it says aims to protect Nigerian Christians, though much of that support is restricted to logistics and intelligence-gathering at the heart of the violence in the north.
Mass kidnappings have come to define Nigeria's security issues, with schoolchildren also targeted.
The victims in the Muslim-majority Woro were rescued this week alongside 145 other victims who had been kidnapped, mostly from the neighboring Niger state.
Local authorities did not say how the captives were rescued from the dense, expansive forest of the Kainji Lake National Park.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described it as the “largest rescue operation ever” undertaken on a single day, and promised to intensify operations against armed gangs.
Some of the jihadi militants in Nigeria have presented themselves as an alternative to the government in areas with limited government and security presence.
A key issue in Nigeria is the poor welfare of the country's overstretched and underpaid security forces, which Tinubu has sought to address by recently announcing pay rises and mass recruitment for the military.
The government must find ways to act on intelligence and prevent militant attacks, rather than simply responding to them, according to Sekinat Ojeniyi, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy Africa Practice.
“It is time for us to recheck how much our security apparatus does to prevent” attacks, said Ojeniyi.
A woman who was rescued after being held in a forest after being abducted from the Woro community by gunmen in February receives medical attention at a hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)
Kwara state Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, left, visits a woman receiving medical attention at a hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, after she and others abducted by gunmen from the Woro community in February were rescued from a forest where they had been held. (AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)
Kwara state Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq greets children at a hotel in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, where they are staying after being rescued from a forest where they were held following their abduction from the Woro community by gunmen in February. (AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)
Women and children sit in the courtyard of a hotel where they are staying while waiting for the state governor to address them in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, after being rescued from a forest where they were held following their abduction from the Woro community by gunmen in February. (AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)
Women and children who were rescued after being held in a forest after they were abducted from the Woro community by gunmen in February receive medical attention at a hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)
