Argentine Court Jails Football Fan for 7.5 Years Over Threats Against Angel Di Maria

An Argentine court has sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison for threatening World Cup winner Angel Di Maria and his family in 2024 in an attempt to prevent the former Argentina international from returning to his home country to play for a rival club.

The court in Rosario found 45-year-old Sergio Di Vanni guilty of ordering acts of intimidation against Di Maria’s family. Prosecutors said the threats were intended to discourage the winger from returning from abroad to join Rosario Central, the club where he began his career.

At the time of the threats in March 2024, Di Maria was playing for Portuguese side Benfica but was considering a return to Rosario Central. He eventually rejoined the Argentine club in 2025.

Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys, the boyhood club of Lionel Messi, are the two major teams in Rosario and have a fierce local rivalry. According to prosecutors, the intimidation campaign was linked to an internal power struggle within Newell’s supporters’ group.

The threats included gunshots fired near a gated community where Di Maria owns a property. A pig’s head bearing a bullet wound was also reportedly left outside an estate agency operated by his sister, accompanied by a message threatening his daughter.

A 25-year-old woman, Belen Gutierrez, whom prosecutors identified as one of those involved, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in June after reaching a plea agreement. A third suspect remains in pre-trial detention. Prosecutors alleged that the perpetrators carried out the threats in exchange for four million Argentine pesos, estimated in the report at $2,600.

Di Maria initially abandoned plans to return to Argentina because of concerns for his family’s safety following the threats. However, he later changed his decision and returned to Rosario Central in 2025.

Now 38, Di Maria has spent the past two seasons with Rosario Central and helped the club win the Argentine title at the end of 2025. Di Vanni’s sentence also covered separate offences connected to his involvement in the football supporters’ group.