Two Brazilians nominated for world's best referee award, check it out | OneFootball

The IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics) announced the 25 referees who will compete for the award of the best referee in the world. Brazil is represented by Raphael Claus from the Paulista Football Federation and Wilton Pereira Sampaio from the Goiana Federation.

In 2024, Claus ranked ninth on the list, while Sampaio appeared right behind in tenth. Both officiated in the 2022 World Cup.

The award considers performance throughout the year (January to December), and the winners will be revealed on December 10. The selection is made by journalists and experts from 120 countries, who evaluate referees, players, and teams worldwide.

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A victory would end a 35-year drought without Brazilian winners. The last referee from the country to win the award was José Roberto Wright in 1990, after officiating four matches in the World Cup, while Romualdo Arppi Filho received the honor in 1987, after leading the final of the 1986 World Cup.

Brazil will also have representatives in the upcoming 2026 World Cup. Besides Claus and Sampaio, Ramon Abatti Abel and referee Edina Alves, the only Brazilian woman among the nominees, are pre-selected for the tournament.

Check out the list of the 25 nominated referees:

Clemente TURPIN – France Espen ESKAS – Norway Félix ZWAYER – Germany François LETEXIER – France Istvan KOVACS – Romania José Maria SÁNCHEZ MARTINEZ – Spain Maurício MARIANI – Italy Michael OLIVER – England Sandro SCHÄRER – Switzerland Slavko VINCIC – Slovenia Szymon MARCINIAK – Poland Dario HERRERA – Argentina Esteban OSTOJICH – Uruguay Facundo TELLO – Argentina Jesus VALENZUELA – Venezuela Piero MAZA – Chile Rafael CLAUS – Brazil Wilton SAMPAIO – Brazil César Arturo RAMOS – Mexico Ivan BARTON – El Salvador Dahane BEIDA – Mauritania Mustafá GHORBAL – Algeria Alireza FAGHANI – Australia Abdulrahman AL JASSIM – Qatar Campbell-Kirk KAWANA-WAUGH – New Zealand

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.