Football is a tribal sport for many.

From a fan growing out their hair until their team wins five games in a row (as Manchester United fans will know) to protests and demonstrations demanding changes at their club, some live and breathe the game.

Others, however, can take it too far.

Violence has been a prevalent issue in football in particular for a long time.

A court in Rosario has sentenced a football supporter to seven-and-a-half years in prison for threatening former Manchester United star Angel Di Maria in a bid to prevent the winger from returning to Argentina to play for club Rosario Central.

Di Maria signed for Manchester United in 2014 in a then-British record deal worth £59.7 million, in a move that promised to be an exciting one for the Red Devils.

However, a poor single season in which Di Maria and his family were burgled saw the Argentine pack his bags and leave soon after.

Di Maria has now faced more violence, this time in his homeland.

The Buenos Aires Times reports that “Sergio ‘Bebe’ Di Vanni, 45, was found guilty of ordering two acts of intimidation against Di Maria and his family on March 25, 2024, with the aim of dissuading the former national team star from returning from abroad to join the side.”

The first attack took place when two people fired shots from a car at the entrance to a gated community where Di Maria owned a property.

According to the court ruling, Di Vanni hired two people, aged 37 and 25, to carry out the shooting in exchange for four million pesos.

The perpetrators also left a message threatening to kill Di Maria’s relatives if he returned to play for Rosario Central, before a man acting on Di Vanni’s orders delivered a box to an estate agency run by one of the footballer’s sisters later that day containing a pig’s head, a bullet and a threatening note.

Angel Di Maria did decide to join Rosario Central despite the series of attacks, returning to his boyhood club in the summer of 2025.

However, the ordeal must have been a scary one for him and his family – who will be glad to see their aggressor locked up behind bars.