A court in Rosario has sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison for a campaign of threats aimed at preventing Ángel Di María from returning to Argentina. The intimidation took place in 2024, when the World Cup winner was weighing a move back home late in his playing career.
Sergio Di Vanni, 45, was convicted of directing threats against members of Di María’s family. Prosecutors said he wanted to discourage the former Argentina international from leaving Europe to join Rosario Central, despite the fact that Di María was then playing for Benfica. He ultimately returned to the club in 2025.
Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys—Lionel Messi’s childhood team—are the city’s leading clubs and long-standing rivals.
Among the threats were gunfire near a gated neighborhood where Di María owns a home, and a pig’s head marked by a bullet wound left outside a real estate office operated by his sister. A note at the scene threatened his daughter.
Belen Gutierrez, 25, whom prosecutors identified as an accomplice, received a three-and-a-half-year sentence in June after reaching a plea deal. A third suspect remains in pre-trial custody. Prosecutors said the pair had been paid four million pesos, or about $2,600, to carry out the intimidation.
The prosecution linked the campaign to a factional dispute within Newell’s ultras. Di Vanni’s sentence also includes separate offenses connected to his role in the supporters’ group.
Di María first dropped his plans to return, citing concern for his family’s safety. He later changed course. Now 38, he has spent the past two seasons with Rosario Central and helped the club secure the Argentine title at the end of 2025.
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