Cuneyt Cakir, the most famous referee of Turkish football, received a great transfer offer. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation sat at the table with Cakir to referee matches in their own league. According to the information received, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation offered an astronomical figure to 44-year-old Cakir. It was learned that the offer made was 500,000 dollars for one season. It is equivalent to 7-8 times of Cakir’s annual earnings in Turkey. It is believed that Cakir is currently thinking about the offer, but he is very keen on the proposal. He successfully refereed the match between Al Hilal and Al Nassr in the Saudi Arabian Pro League in 2019 and received great praise for his management in that match.
Cuneyt Cakir, who started his referee career in 1994, did his first match in the Super League in 2001 and received his FIFA badge in 2006. In Europe, he directed the Europa League semi-final between Fulham and Hamburg in the 2009-2010 season, then stepped into the Champions League with the Rubin-Barcelona match in the 2010-2011 season.
On 16 June 2011, Cakir was promoted to the UEFA Elite Category, which is the top category in Europe. Then, he refereed a FIFA U-20 World Cup semi-final, a Champions League semi-final and a FIFA Club World Cup final, respectively. Cuneyt Cakir attended the 2012 Euro, where he blew the whistle in the Portugal-Spain semi-final. Participating in the 2014 World Cup, Cakir became only the second Turkish referee to experience this honour, after Dogan Babacan. Cakir made history by refereeing the semi-final match between Netherlands and Argentina and hit the top of his career with the Champions League final between Barcelona and Juventus in 2015. His last top appointments were at Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018.
Source: Haber
