Argentina captain Lionel Messi’s teammate, and forward, Angel Di Maria received a threat at his family home on the outskirts of Rosario during an intense wave of drug-related violence in the central city.
This development has come a week after Di Maria claimed that he is eager to end his playing career at his boyhood club Rosario Central. On Tuesday (March 26), the 36-year-old will start in a friendly game between Argentina and Costa Rica, to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
‘Tell your son Angel not to come back to Rosario because we will kill a family member’
“Tell your son Angel not to come back to Rosario because we will kill a family member,” the message read, according to the news portal Infobae, which cited police sources. “Not even Pullaro is going to save you,” it added, directing to the provincial governor named Maximiliano Pullaro. “We don’t leave paper notes. We leave bullets and dead people behind.”
As per media reports, the motivation for the threat calls is not still clear. Police, on the other hand, have remained mum and not responded to a Reuters email seeking more details on the matter.
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According to reports, a car left a sign carrying the message addressed to the Di Maria family in front of the private neighbourhood where the 36-year-old resides.
This isn’t the first such instance of an Argentinean player being subject to such a threat. In 2023, a warning came to Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain Messi, which was followed by an attack by unidentified gunmen on a supermarket owned by the family of his wife Antonela Roccuzzo.