Angel Di Maria’s move from Benfica to Rosario Central could collapse after more threats were carried out.
It had earlier been reported by A Bola that the 2022 World Cup winner had finally agreed to return home to his first-ever club after being given assurances over his safety.
That’s now been thrown into doubt once more after a picture of the star winger was vandalised and shop windows were shot out and accompanied with a threatening note.
Diario Crónica reports that after Rosario’s Copa Libertadores exit, the Lamadrid and Oroño gas station in Rosario was attacked with the windows shot at by individuals on a motorcycle. A note was also left which read: “We are waiting for you Di Maria.”
A day earlier an image of the Benfica star had been defaced with the words: “Are you still coming back?”
Issues arose around Di Maria’s return when reports first emerged in March and his family house was shot at and a message was left in his front garden reading: “Tell your son Ángel not to come back to Rosario, otherwise we will ruin him by killing a member of his family. Even Pullaro (the governor of the province, Maximiliano Pullaro) will not save you.”
Two of the four perpetrators of that act were arrested a few hours later and reportedly belonged to a group of narcoterrorists.
According to local media and investigators, these threats could have been directed by prisoners who seek to sow fear to obtain better detention conditions, which were tightened in December by Governor Pullaro.
Despite the March threats, reports earlier in the week claimed Di Maria would in fact return to Rosario Central on a six-month deal. He was planning to live 300 kilometres away in Buenos Aires and leave his family in Miami ahead of joining Inter Miami for the 2025 season.
What impact the latest threats have had on his move is yet to be known.
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