The 36-year-old, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022, had said he wanted to return to his boyhood club in the nation’s third-largest city, which has recently seen an explosion in gang-related crime.

“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 Maria 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,” he said, adding he wanted to protect the “peace and happiness” of his family.

Di Maria, who has played for Manchester United, has faced other threats including a note thrown into a family property in March threatening their lives if he joined any club in Rosario, a city in the central Santa Fe province.

Argentine authorities said at the time the note contained a threat from “criminal organizations” putting on a show of strength.

Santa Fe Governor Maximiliano Pullaro said this month there were protocols in place to guarantee the safety of public figures.

But Di Maria said he disagreed: “It is disrespectful to talk about security and protocols for me when people from Rosario cannot go out to work, cannot wait for the bus without being robbed or killed for a backpack.”

Several high-profile South American footballers have faced criminal actions ranging from threats to serious crime, such as kidnapping and blackmail.

Also in Rosario, gunmen opened fire last year on a shop belonging to the family of World Cup-winning Argentine captain Lionel Messi’s wife.

They left a threatening message for the footballer in what was also interpreted as gangs flexing their muscles.

Meanwhile, guerilla fighters in Colombia kidnapped the father of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz last October and held him for 12 days before freeing him.

© Agence France-Presse

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