ARGENTINE FAN JAILED FOR TRYING TO BLOCK DI MARIA’S RETURN HOME
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By: Fasasi Hammad
An Argentine court on Wednesday sentenced a football supporter to seven and a half years in prison for threatening World Cup winner Angel Di Maria in 2024 in an attempt to prevent his return to Argentina towards the end of his career.
The court in Rosario found 45-year-old Sergio Di Vanni guilty of ordering acts of intimidation against Di Maria’s family to discourage the former Argentina international from leaving Europe to play for a rival club.
Di Maria was playing for Benfica in March 2024 when he was considering a return to his boyhood club, Rosario Central. He eventually completed the move in 2025.
Rosario Central and Newell’s Old Boys, the childhood club of Lionel Messi, are the two major football clubs in Rosario and have a fierce rivalry.
The threats against Di Maria included gunshots fired near a gated community where he owns a property. In another incident, a pig’s head marked with a bullet wound was dumped outside a real estate agency operated by his sister, alongside 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 pre-trial detention, while prosecutors alleged that the threats were carried out in exchange for four million pesos, estimated at $2,600.
According to the prosecution, the intimidation campaign was connected to an internal power struggle within Newell’s Old Boys’ ultras, the club’s organised supporters. Di Vanni’s sentence also covered separate offences linked to his involvement in the supporters’ group.
Following the threats, Di Maria initially abandoned his plans to return to Argentina, citing concerns for his family’s safety.
However, the 38-year-old eventually changed his mind and returned to Rosario Central in 2025. He has since helped the club win the Argentine title at the end of the year.
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