Gil Manzano, the Spanish referee at Euro 2024, to show his “best version”

Jesus Gil Manzano, who will represent the Spanish arbitration in Euro 2024 with assistants Ángel Nevado Rodríguez and Diego Barbero Sevilla, and the VAR presence of Juan Martínez Munuera and Alejandro Hernández Hernández, he acknowledged that this great appointment came to him “at a good time”, after twelve years which is installed in the elite which helps to show their “best version”.

“It came at a good time for me. Twelve years ago in the First Division calling games of great responsibility.At the international level it is a long time to play big games. Refereeing is a long-distance career and being a good referee develops over time, you mature and the last years of your career is when I really think you show your best version arbitrarily ,” he reflected with the Royal Federation media. Football (RFEF).

Gil Manzano praised the team that will join him at the event in Germany, convinced of the good role the Spanish referee will play in the competition. “I took Ángel and Diego, I’ve known them all my life since we went up to Second together. We’ve been together for three years and we’ve been in First for twelve. “I could not have been better accompanied,” He assured, before talking about Martínez Munuera and Alejandro Hernández Hernández as “two extraordinary VAR referees, world-leading.”

International referee since 2014, Gil Manzano directed 232 matches in the elite of Spanish football and 22 matches in the Champions League. Look back and remember your beginnings. “My first memory in the world of refereeing was with my brother when we both went to Don Benito’s delegation. We have not been involved in refereeing. My brother came one day saying he wanted to be a referee, that he should sign me up and I did athletics and played soccer at school, he didn’t give me much time for anything. We arrived on Saturday, the delegate was there and gave us all the documentation to sign up,” he recalled.

“It is a very good stage because every Friday they give us classes and then you go out with your games for the weekend. You are in the lower categories and you see the Third impossible, but you want to give they you a First regional assistant , a preference. As you rose through the ranks, you aspired to more,” He recalled an agenda in which he wrote down all his performances between 1996 and 2001 with control over dates, assistant referees and comments on his level until he reached the Third Division.

For Gil Manzano, his success in refereeing is based on athletics, which he trains regularly: “Without that part of being an athlete I wouldn’t be where I am today. My refereeing is characterized by the fact that my physical level is quite good because I always have a good base. “I practiced athletics since I was little, since I was nine years old, and I loved it.”