An Argentine court has sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison for orchestrating threats against Angel Di Maria’s family to block his return to Argentine football.
The court in Rosario found Sergio Di Vanni, 45, guilty on Wednesday of ordering intimidation acts in March 2024, when Di Maria was still at Benfica and weighing a return to his childhood club, Rosario Central.
Prosecutors told the court Di Vanni instructed others to fire gunshots near a gated community where Di Maria owns property and to dump a pig’s head with a bullet hole outside an estate agency operated by his sister. The package included a threatening message directed at the player’s daughter.
Investigators said the plot was motivated by the fierce rivalry between Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys, Lionel Messi’s boyhood club, and was linked to an internal power struggle within Newell’s ultra groups. The threats were allegedly carried out for four million pesos, about $2,600.
A 25-year-old woman, Belen Gutierrez, identified as one of those who executed the threats, was sentenced to three and a half years in June after reaching a plea agreement. A third suspect remains in pre-trial detention.
Di Vanni’s sentence also covers separate offences tied to his leadership role in the supporters’ group.
Following the threats, Di Maria initially put his return on hold, citing family safety. He later reversed the decision, rejoining Rosario Central in 2025, where at 38 he helped the club to the Argentine title at the end of that year.
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