Recently, many successful South American footballers abroad have expressed concerns about returning to their home countries for a variety of reasons, but almost all of them relate to the insecurity they and their families could face.

In recent months, the sporting world has been rocked by threats against the family of Argentine forward Ángel Di María, the kidnapping of Luis Díaz's father in Colombia and the blackmailing of Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero's mother in a region of the world plagued by drug trafficking, gang violence and, above all, impunity for crime.

"This type of violence directly threatens the economic and sporting success of clubs," said Argentine club Rosario Central, based in the province of Santa Fe, of the threats against Di María, who opted to stay in Portugal rather than return to the club of his heart.

In March, Di María's relatives received a letter threatening his life if he returned home to play for Rosario Central, the club where he made his debut almost twenty years ago. It is a city plagued by serious problems, with drug-trafficking gangs battling for control of Argentina's third-largest city and clashes with security forces.

The 36-year-old Benfica winger, who has already announced his international retirement after the Copa America in the United States in June, had previously expressed his desire to play for Rosario Central and try to win the Copa Libertadores before retiring from professional football.

The Argentinian authorities said at the time that the note was a threat from 'criminal organisations' showing their strength in the face of the change of government and the persecution they were facing from the security forces.

Incredible as it may seem, in the midst of a fierce battle with the police, Rosario's drug traffickers have responded by murdering innocent people who have nothing to do with crime, as a method of blackmail and an attempt to negotiate a truce with the authorities.

The footballer has not spoken publicly about the incident, but an Argentine sports channel quoted sources close to Di María as saying that he had ruled out returning to put "the safety and health of his family first".

It remains to be seen whether, when his contract with the club that opened the door to Europe (Benfica) expires in June 2024, he will play another year with them or in Major League Soccer (MLS), as some Argentine journalists have suggested.

Also in Rosario last year, armed men opened fire on a supermarket owned by the family of Antonela Roccuzzo, the wife of Argentina's World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi.

They left a threatening message for the footballer, which the gangs interpreted as a show of force. Similarly, messages of this kind are not only directed at footballers or wealthy personalities, but also at ordinary people, always with the same intention: to spread fear in a city that has been left in the hands of drug traffickers due to political connivance.

Further north, in Ecuador, a country plagued by gang violence linked to drug trafficking, 34-year-old striker Enner Valencia recently abandoned plans to return to his hometown club Emelec in Brazil, where he plays for Internacional de Porto Alegre.

"I'd like to go to Emelec... try to help the team that gave me everything, but I wouldn't bring my family to Ecuador," he told an Argentinian journalist last year.

Valencia's homeland has seen a shocking rise in violence and homicides in recent years, as drug-trafficking gangs have grown stronger and fought bloody territorial wars.

In 2022, Valencia's sister was kidnapped and held for over a week near the Colombian border until she was rescued by a national police anti-riot and anti-extortion unit.

Last October, guerrillas in Colombia kidnapped the father of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz, who was held for 12 days before being released under pressure from the government, which is negotiating a peace deal with the ELN guerrillas.

Colombia's top scorer, 38-year-old Radamel Falcao García, subsequently announced that he had abandoned plans to return to the capital's Millonarios club. "We have to look at the situation in the country at the moment, which is a bit complex," he said in an interview following the incident with his colleague Diaz's father.

In March this year, Colombian police reported that criminals had tried to trick former Colombian international Carlos Bacca into paying a ransom for his sister and brother-in-law.

Extortion, one of the most common crimes committed by criminal groups in Latin America, is particularly devastating in Peru. In February, 40-year-old striker Paolo Guerrero became a target after signing for César Vallejo.

As soon as he signed the contract, members of the 'Los Cachacos de Yolin' gang began blackmailing his mother, Petronila Gonzales. When she was arrested, Guerrero decided to stay, although he demanded greater security guarantees from his new club.

Brazil is not immune to this reality, which affects several South American countries. The forward known as Willian left Brazil shortly after returning from Arsenal in 2022 to play for Corinthians. The reason for his return to England was threats from fans following his poor performances for the team based in Brazil's economic capital, São Paulo.

These events also affect the South American leagues, which are the most important in terms of training and exporting players to the rest of the world, particularly Europe, in terms of elite players.

Not only are these leagues losing their great players at a very young age, often after just a handful of games for a few dollars, but they are now being deprived of their enjoyment once they have made an economic difference and are in the twilight of their professional careers, as was the case with the great stars (Francescoli, Maradona, Tevez, Zamorano, Veron, Ronaldinho, "O Fenomeno" Ronaldo and many others) who returned to wear the shirt of the club they loved.