DFB referee since 1999
© Imago
Bundesliga record referee Dr. Felix Brych (49) ends his career in summer. “I no longer plan beyond this season because I have to physically go beyond limits,” the lawyer from Munich explained his decision on “Welt TV”.
The two-time world referee of the year (2017, 2021) and six-time DFB referees of the year (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023) wants to put this end itself. (…) As a athlete, you notice that it is becoming increasingly difficult to withstand this level of performance. I spoke to my wife. Also with the DFB. Now is the time when you would have to plan the next season. And I won’t go this season. ”Now he is looking forward to three months as an impartial. “But I would like to pass on my knowledge,” he announced.
Record – and then Brych’s cruciate ligament tears
Brych is German record referee with 352 Bundesliga games. In addition, he also whistled as a DFB referee since 1999-since 2004 in the German elite class-138 second division games. Brych had suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in his 344th Bundesliga mission in the 2-1 of VfB Stuttgart at Eintracht Frankfurt at the end of November 2023-in this game he equalized the record of Wolfgang Stark.
Brych a “defining personality”
After a ten month break, Brych whistled again in the Bundesliga. In the 1: 3 between Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart in mid -September 2024, he rose to the sole record holder. In his vita there are two DFB Cup finals (2015, 2021), the Champions League final 2017, the European League final 2014 and even the final in the Greek Cup 2023. He also whistled at the 2014 World Championships in Brazil and 2018 in Russia and at the 2016 European Championships in France and 2020 in several countries.
For the President of the Bavarian Football Association (BFV), Christoph Kern, a “fantastic career” ends in summer. Football loses a “formative personality on the square” and a “role model, especially for our youngsters”, said Kern of the “German Press Agency”.