South African referee Victor Gomes has been named among the top five match officials worldwide by the International Federation of Football Statistics & History.
Gomes, who turned 40 in December, was one of two Africans among the 25 nominees for the Men’s World’s Best Referee 2022 award, as reported by iDiski Times.
Even though he missed out on the main award, which was handed to Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, Gomes ended up in fifth place.
Marciniak had taken charge of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, with Gomes representing South Africa at the tournament, receiving laurels for his performances.
Gomes was in charge of two group stage games, namely France’s 4-1 win over Australia and Spain’s 2-1 defeat against Japan.
He was also selected as fourth official for Argentina’s quarter-final win on penalties against Netherlands during which Mateu Lahoz dished out a record-breaking 17 yellow cards.
After the tournament, Gomes announced his retirement from the beautiful game, telling Robert Marawa it’s time to give back to football “in a different capacity”.
Meanwhile, Marciniak follows in the footsteps of Daniele Orsato (2020) and Felix Brych (2021) to be crowned The Best World Referee by IFFHS after receiving 150 voting points – more than double of second-placed Orsato with 65.
Gomes, who was also in charge of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal and Egypt, has received 25 voting points, which saw him finish in fifth position.
See the full top 10 below:
