ROSARIO (Argentina): In the dead of night, two men fired shots at a closed supermarket belonging to the family of Lionel Messi’s wife, before leaving a threatening message on the ground aimed at the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner.

“Messi, we’re waiting for you. Javkin is a narco, he won’t take care of you,” said the handwritten message left on the ground by the men who shot 14 bullets into the supermarket’s metallic facade in the early hours of Thursday.

Pablo Javkin is the mayor of Messi’s hometown, Rosario, where the supermarket is located.

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.”

“Here, what’s sought is the repercussion, it’s perfidious,” he said. “What story goes more quickly viral in the world than an attack on Messi?” A witness confirmed seeing the two men arrive on a motorbike. One of them got off, fired the shots, dropped the note and they both fled.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2023