Argentine police and prosecutors are investigating an anonymous death threat to soccer star Angel di Maria delivered in his hometown of Rosario.
Staffers of the Funes Hills Miraflores condominium where the World Cup winner usually stays in the region, said they found a package containing a death threat to Di Maria’s family if he returned to play for one of the city clubs.
The 36-year-old winger at Benfica in Portugal said recently he could play again for his boyhood club Rosario Central. He was currently in the US touring with Argentina.“That kind of threat brings a lot of social commotion and that is their aim — to make the population scared, hit public figures,” Esteban Santantino, who works in security for the local government, told broadcaster Todo Noticias.
The packet containing the threat note was reportedly thrown from a grey car at 2.30 am on Monday(local time), landing at one of the entrances of the private neighbourhood of Miraflores. That housing complex, according to the Buenos Aires Times, houses several members of Di Maria’s family, including his mother.
Rosario has been rocked by waves of violence between rival drug-dealing groups. The city homicide rate is 22 per 100,000 residents, far above Argentina’s average of 4.2 per 100,000.
The violence in Rosario affected another World Cup winner a year ago. Unidentified gunmen shot at a supermarket owned by a relative of Lionel Messi’s. They also left a message that read: “Messi, we are waiting for you.”
