The Veteran English referee, Mark Clattenburg, revealed that he
had to change his refereeing method for matches, after watching
Argentine star Lionel Messi.
Klattenberg told the Spanish newspaper “AS” that Messi’s great
talent forced him to change his monitoring of situations in
football matches, to make the right decisions.
“When I saw Lionel Messi for the first time, I was very excited.
It was a match between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain,
and I said to myself at the time, oh my God, this is great,”
said Klattringer.
Katzenberg explained changing the refereeing method: “When
you are a referee, you are watching football, but with Messi,
I was losing the ability to track the ball, so imagine the
defenders’ feeling.”
He added: “I had to change the method of refereeing and
analyze the situation when Messi had the ball, so I had
to watch from afar so that I could see everything.”
The veteran English referee indicated that the opponent’s players
tried to stop Messi in every way, such as stepping on his foot
or beating him from his stomach.
He said he had warned Messi of the opponent’s roughness,
but “he didn’t care.”
On the other hand, Klattenberg indicated that he also had
a “special relationship” with Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.
The English referee said: “We had a close relationship. When I
went to receive my medal after the Euro 2016 final between
Portugal and France, he came to me and hugged me. This was
the degree of respect between us.”
He added: “And Ronaldo also left me a shirt bearing a phrase
to Mark with best wishes, in the dressing room, after one of
the matches.”
It is noteworthy that Klattenberg, who stopped arbitration
in Europe and decided to go to China, managed great matches,
such as the Euro 2016 final, and the 2016 European Champions
League final.
