An Argentine court jailed a football supporter for seven and a half years on Wednesday for threatening Angel Di Maria in 2024 in a bid to stop the World Cup winner from returning to Argentina at the end of his career.

A court in Rosario found Sergio Di Vanni, 45, guilty of ordering acts of intimidation against Di Maria’s family with the aim of dissuading the former Argentina international from returning from abroad to play for a rival club.

Di Maria was playing for Benfica at the time, in March 2024, but was considering a return to his boyhood club Rosario Central, a move he eventually completed 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 the dumping of a pig’s head bearing a bullet wound outside an estate agency run by his sister, alongside a message threatening his daughter.

A 25-year-old woman, Belen Gutierrez, identified by prosecutors as one of the perpetrators, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in June after entering a plea agreement.

A third suspect remains in pre-trial detention. Prosecutors alleged the two carried out the threats in exchange for four million pesos ($2,600).

According to the prosecution, the intimidation campaign was linked to an internal power struggle among Newell’s ultras. Di Vanni’s sentence also covered separate offences related to his involvement in the supporters’ group.

Following the threats, Di Maria initially abandoned plans to return to Argentina for the safety of his family.

He ultimately reversed that decision and, now 38, has spent the past two seasons at Rosario Central, helping the club win the Argentine title at the end of 2025.

AFP