Unsung hero award: Héctor Vergara

The other day I was gently reminded by a comment here (thank you CWY2190) of the storied career of this man, Héctor Vergara (FIFA bio here).

His contribution to GER v. URU in the 3rd place match was his third game as an assistant referee at the 2010 World Cup and with the appearance, Vergara will set a FIFA record for most World Cup games as a combination of referee and assistant referee with 14.

A FIFA referee since 1993, Vergara has quite a list of laurels to his name including the following:

International Tournaments Refereed

• 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
• 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification Matches
• 2010 UAE Games
• 2009 FIFA Club World Cup
• 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup
• 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany
• 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualification Matches
• 2005 FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2005
• 2004 FIFA Athens Olympic Games
• 2004 FIFA Athens Olympic Qualifying Tournament - Mexico
• 2004 FIFA Toyota U-23 International Tournament - Qatar
• 2003 Football Confederation (CONCACAF) Gold Cup - Mexico
• 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan
• 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan Qualification Matches
• 2002 Football Confederation (CONCACAF) Gold Cup
• 2001 FIFA U-20 World Youth Championship
• 2000 Olympic CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament
• 1999 CONCACAF Club Championship
• 1998 FIFA World Cup France Qualification Matches
• 1995 FIFA U-17 World Championship
• 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship

FIFA Referee Profile 2004

• 1999 CONCACAF US Cup
• 1998 CONCACAF U-20 World Championship Qualification Tournament
• 1998 CONCACAF Caribbean Shell Cup
• 1997 CONCACAF US Cup

This will be Vergara’s last World Cup for certain, and perhaps his final elite matches. He’ll turn 44 in December, and as we know FIFA’s mandatory retirement age is 45. In addition to the above, he has worked 130 internationals, and now 14 of these at the World Cup, breaking a record.

Like almost all of his colleagues, this is a part-time dream as his day job is executive director of the Manitoba Soccer Association. Recently he stated in a recent interview with a Canadian newspaper, “I just want to make my family and friends proud.”. Well sir, I do believe you have accomplished that, and so much more.