An Argentine court sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison Wednesday for threatening World Cup winner Angel Di Maria and his family in 2024 in an attempt to prevent the forward from returning to Argentina to finish his career.
A court in Rosario found 45-year-old Sergio Di Vanni guilty of ordering acts of intimidation against Di Maria’s family to dissuade the former Argentina international from returning from abroad to join a rival club.
Di Maria was playing for Benfica in March 2024 when he was considering a return to his boyhood club, Rosario Central. The 2022 World Cup winner eventually rejoined the Argentine side in 2025.
Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys, Lionel Messi’s childhood club, are the two major teams in Rosario and fierce local rivals.
The threats included gunshots fired near a gated community where Di Maria owns a property and a pig’s head bearing a bullet wound dumped outside a real estate agency run by his sister. The pig’s head was accompanied by a message threatening his daughter.
A 25-year-old woman, Belen Gutierrez, whom prosecutors identified as one of the perpetrators, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in June after reaching a plea agreement.
A third suspect remains in pretrial detention. Prosecutors alleged that the two carried out the threats in exchange for 4 million pesos ($2,600).
According to prosecutors, the intimidation campaign was linked to an internal power struggle among Newell’s ultras. Di Vanni’s sentence also covered separate offenses related to his involvement in the supporters’ group.
Following the threats, Di Maria initially abandoned plans to return to Argentina out of concern for his family’s safety.
He ultimately reversed that decision and, at 38, has spent the past two seasons at Rosario Central, helping the club win the Argentine title at the end of 2025.
