An Argentine court on Wednesday sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison for threatening Angel Di Maria in 2024 to prevent the World Cup winner from returning home to play at the end of his career.
The court in Rosario convicted 45-year-old Sergio Di Vanni of orchestrating threats against Di Maria’s family to discourage the former Argentina international from leaving Europe to join a rival club.
At the time of the incident in March 2024, Di Maria was playing for Benfica but was considering a return to childhood club Rosario Central, which he eventually joined in 2025.
Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys, the boyhood club of Lionel Messi, are the city’s two leading teams and bitter rivals.
The threats involved gunfire near a gated community where Di Maria owns a property and a bullet-wounded pig’s head left outside a real estate agency operated by his sister, accompanied by a message threatening his daughter.
Belen Gutierrez, 25, whom prosecutors identified as one of those involved, received a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence in June after reaching a plea agreement.
Another suspect remains in pre-trial detention. Prosecutors alleged that the threats were carried out in exchange for four million pesos ($2,600).
According to prosecutors, the intimidation campaign stemmed from an internal power struggle within Newell’s ultras. Di Vanni was also sentenced for separate offences connected to his involvement with the supporters’ group.
The threats initially forced Di Maria to abandon his plans to return to Argentina over concerns for his family’s safety.
However, the 38-year-old eventually changed his mind and has spent the past two seasons with Rosario Central, helping the club secure the Argentine title at the end of 2025.
