Argentina World Cup champion Ángel Di María says he won’t finish his soccer career with his hometown club Rosario Central after a series of violent threats against his family.
“There was a threat at my sister’s business: it was a box with a pig head and a bullet in the forehead, and a note that said that if I returned to (Rosario) Central, the next head was that of my daughter Pia,” Di María told TV station Rosario3.
“I am not going to return to Rosario in this way. They touched my family, and I am not going to allow that. Not at any price.”
Di María, who is from the same town as Lionel Messi, helped Argentina win its second Copa America title in the United States earlier this month. The former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain standout said he wants to protect the “peace and happiness” of his family.
Di María’s family also received a note in March, shortly after he expressed his desire to finish his career with Rosario Central. Argentine news outlet Infobae, citing police sources, reported the note said, ‘Tell your son Ángel not to come back to Rosario because we will kill a family member.”
“Not even Pullaro is going to save you,” the note said, referring to the provincial governor Maximiliano Pullaro. “We don’t leave paper notes. We leave bullets and dead people behind.”
Messi, the Inter Miami star in Major League Soccer, also received a threatening message at a supermarket owned by his wife’s family in March 2023.
Although rumored Di María could finish his career with Inter Miami, it’s likely he will land with Portuguese club Benfica, where he played from 2007-10 and in 2023.
Di María is one of the most storied soccer players in Argentina’s history, winning the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2007, an Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008, the Qatar World Cup in 2022, and Copa America titles in 2021 and 2024.
Di María retired from the national team after the latest Copa America run, but coach Lionel Scaloni said he wanted him to play and be honored in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match in Argentina later this year.