The most successful Slovenian football referee, Damir Skomina, has announced that his refereeing career is over. Skomina started in 1992 with the Primorska League match between Rakek and Korta. In April 2000, he made his debut in the Slovenian first division with the match between Beltinci and Primorje.
In October 2008, after six years on the FIFA List and in his 17th refereeing season, he refereed his first UEFA Champions League match. In the same year, he also became the first Slovenian at the Olympic Games, while being fourth official at Euro 2008. Skomina took a new step forward in 2012, when he became the first Slovenian referee at the European Championship and the first Slovenian referee to receive the honour of officiating in the UEFA Super Cup. This was followed by the Euro 2016 in France, where he was one of three referees with four matches. In addition, he regularly refereed European club competitions, where he was increasingly entrusted with the most prestigious matches. In 2017, as the first Slovenian referee in the UEFA Europa League final in Stockholm, he led the match between Manchester United and Ajax. In 2018, he made his debut at the World Cup, which was a new historical milestone for Slovenian refereeing in general. And then came the crown of his career, the UEFA Champions League final 2019 between Liverpool and Tottenham.
Damir Skomina refereed 354 matches in the Slovenian first division and ended his career last November, in a match between home Club Brugge and Borussia Dortmund, where he was forced into retirement by an injury. It was also his only match in his long career that he ended prematurely. "I wanted to referee at the last European Championship and say good-bye there, but unfortunately a knee injury made this impossible. My journey on the football fields is over", said Skomina, who recently turned 45, on his Instagram account.
Source: NZS
