There are few young people who dare to be soccer referees. The javiense Miguel Esteve Espasa has been arbitrating for two years. With only 14 years he was clear that his vocation was to be a soccer referee. Now with 16 years, he is registered in the Benidorm delegation.
Like any young man he started playing football, but he combined it by refereeing non-federated matches until the 13 years in a local league. Miguel says that he enjoys playing, now refereeing until the 2 regional youth, is an assistant in the regional category and until today was preferential assistant in friendly matches.
Just this Sunday will debut in official game of preference in Gandia, in the Portuarios-Alginet party. Since he is a minor, his father always accompanies him to parties. Miguel emphasizes that the referees do not have security in the football fields and sometimes they have a bad time.
Although he has not yet had to do any course on the video arbitration (VAR), Miguel says he needs to perfect it in some actions of the game, but he hopes that little by little he will change. The young referee states that "VAR helps the main referees who make a mistake, with the VAR the referee has more security".
To train and continue to grow as an arbitrator, Miguel looks at colleges of higher rank than he arbitrates. At the national level he likes how Juan Martínez Munuera and Antonio Matéu Laoz referee. Miguel defines himself as a referee who likes to play, likes dialogue rather than showing a card, but recognizes that it is very difficult to reach the arbitration elite.
Esteve recognizes that "These are very difficult tests, but if you think about it, hopefully one day the opportunity comes". In this sense, from time to time the delegation of Benidorm travels to perform physical and technical tests to know if they are qualified to referee.
The hobby of arbitration comes from himself, he liked to referee rather than play. "The arbitration hooks you, you want to whistle matches, I go happy to the matches and I have a great illusion in arbitration", says Miguel.
Another important point is physical preparation. Miguel has a personal trainer, who helps him in the preparation practically every afternoon. In the morning he studies 4º of ESO at the María Inmaculada school, so during the week, in the mornings, he studies, in the evenings trainings and private classes and on weekends to referee.
