The Ponferrad referee José Luis González González put this weekend in the Sánchez Pizjuán epilogue to a long career in arbitration with more than 400 games, more than half in the First Division with “happiness for having reached the goal”, although with “Some regret for doing it at the best moment of maturity,” he said in an interview with Efe.
It has been more than three decades since turning 13 he entered the world of arbitration, where he coincided with his brother who did not have the career of him that reached the Second Division in the 2003-04 season for an August 29, 2009 debut in a Real Zaragoza-Seville “that I have in my memory as if it were yesterday,” he recalls.
Since then eleven seasons in the arbitration elite where he claims to have found “the utmost respect” and the “satisfaction of having carried out, in general, a work of which to be proud”.
Curiously, in his farewell, in this unprecedented season marked by the breakdown of the coronavirus, he was able to do it from the field of play, something that was not always clear given the health circumstances.
But he did it in a Sevilla-Valencia (1-0, as in his debut in the First) where he felt “happiness, having arrived at full physical and refereeing level, having experienced, in my view, an upward curve to the last day where I have enjoyed and been able to arrive more complete and mature in all aspects, “he relates.
In fact, he acknowledges that arbitration has been accompanying him on his own life trajectory, training in studies, to later approve the Opposition as a National Police, an occupation that he reconciled until arbitration and family obligations prevented him.
The only season has been “especially savored, without sadness, but enjoying every moment, because each weekend has been fantastic because of the complicity with his teammates, Rubén and Diego who later moved to the field of play”.
The fact that it already has its future focused on video arbitration (VAR) in which it has actively participated since its introduction, makes this farewell “more bearable because it has not been, as in other times, ending a long stage from one day to another, but it will be an evolution. “
José Luis González is a staunch defender of the implementation of this tool to help the collegiate “where it is possible to contribute from the outside the knowledge and experience acquired to help and complement the work of the colleague so that he enriches himself, as far as possible.”
That is why he sees “this controversial arbitration review measure” as a huge help and success “because the decisions are not always black and white, there are also grays and that is what must be accepted, which must also take into account the interpretation and therefore This gives rise to the controversy that will be inherent, although it will normalize over time, “he predicts.
His new role involves him, as he points out “that the heart is accelerated even more in the VOR chair than on the field of play, but if someone thought that with its implantation the errors would be eliminated that would remove it from the head, because only it will remove those obvious and indisputable and there will be interpretable decisions. “
González González has lived, like the whole of society, the application of the new preventive measures against Covid-19, which has taken place “naturally, although it is clear that, as in daily life, an adaptation is needed, but the guidelines have been clear and have been strictly followed. “
Among the novelties introduced by the protocol there has also been the dispute of the games behind closed doors which, according to the Bercian referee, “have meant that a different rhythm of matches was seen, perhaps more relaxed, without so much pressure, but the collegiate more that conditioning, has helped, but without influencing. “
Looking to the future is also improving his training, focused on sports management, although he has departed somewhat from the training work that he has carried out in the past, missing in the refereeing world of Castilla y León past times in which he had with the largest number of referees in the highest categories.