BUENOS AIRES - Lionel Messi's boyhood club Newell's Old Boys of Argentina put up a banner of support for their country's captain in their stadium on Saturday, following the attack against his wife Antonela Roccuzzo's family business.
A threatening hand-written message to the Paris St Germain forward was left at a supermarket belonging to the Roccuzzo's early on Thursday morning, after two people on motorcycles shot 14 bullets at the business.
"Messi, we are waiting for you. (Pablo) Javkin (Rosario's mayor) is also a narco, he will not take care of you," read the handwritten text left on the door.
In the dead of night, two men fired shots at the closed supermarket, before leaving the threatening message on the ground aimed at the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner.
Pablo Javkin is the mayor of Messi's home town, Rosario, where the supermarket is located, some 320km north-west of Buenos Aires.
Javkin confirmed the supermarket belonged to the family of Antonela Roccuzzo, who shares three children with the football superstar, and said the aim of the attack was to "to create chaos in the city".
Provincial police assistant chief Ivan Gonzalez told Cadena 3 television station there was no one on the premises at the time of the attack.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Federico Rebola, told reporters that there had been no previously known threats made against the Roccuzzo family.
The message of support from Newell's was posted on social media hours before Saturday's home game against Barracas Central in the Argentine league.
"Leo, you are the heart of a country that loves you. Newell's is with you," read the red and black banner, which was placed behind one of the goals at the Coloso Marcelo Bielsa stadium ahead of the match.
Messi is set to make his first appearance for Argentina since lifting the World Cup after he was called up by coach Lionel Scaloni on Friday for friendly matches later this month.
Roccuzzo and Messi often travel to Rosario on holidays to visit their families as both are natives of the city built on the banks of the Parana River in Argentina's Santa Fe province.
The city has one of the highest murder rates in Argentina, as gangs linked to drug trafficking coexist, according to judicial reports, and confrontations with injuries and deaths are frequently reported.
Rosario is a port city that has gradually become a nerve centre for drug trafficking and the most violent city in Argentina, with 287 murders in 2022.
The centrist mayor, left-wing governor of Santa Fe state, Omar Perotti, and centre-left national government regularly pass on responsibility for counter-narcotics measures and the use of the city's security forces to each other.
At a meeting this week between the municipal, provincial and national security forces, provincial minister Claudio Brilloni said he had "urged the federal forces to greater collaboration, engagement and participation" in the fight against violence and criminality in Rosario.
Among the right-wing opposition, two declared candidates for October's presidential election called for help from the military police to fight drug-trafficking in Rosario.
"The situation is complicated in Rosario... the drug traffickers have won," said Security Minister Anibal Fernandez.
REUTERS and AFP