Jorge Messi died on August 8, 2026, without ever having told this story.
Years earlier, he had approached the municipality of Rosario with a simple idea: to fund treatments for children with the same growth hormone deficiency that he himself had had to face with Lionel as a child. But the municipality asked him for something else: not money, but training. They needed doctors trained in pediatric bone marrow transplantation. Jorge did not hesitate.
Through his foundation, he set up a program with Barcelona’s Hospital Vall d’Hebron, and he personally coordinated every rotation: flights, accommodation, paperwork. One of his sons welcomed the doctors at the airport. Doctor Juan Di Santo, a direct witness, only revealed it now on La Nación+: thanks to that quiet effort, the hospital in Rosario carried out some 100 transplants in children without social coverage. No one knew. He never asked for it.