Who is Simone Sozza, the referee who will manage Inter Milan on Saturday

Writing history is a huge responsibility. But for some time Simone Sozza has known that this is his destiny, and it will continue to be so if he is able to pass tough tests like the one that awaits him on Saturday. He will referee the derby between Inter And Milan and in itself it would be enough. The degree of pressure increases dramatically if you look at his origins: born in Milan, belonging to the Seregno section, in the province of Monza and Brianza, where he lives and works as an employee. It is true that in the last period Rocchi has been breaking down the wall of territoriality, but something similar had already happened in the distant past. It was March 27, 1977 when Paolo Casarin, born in Venice and enrolled in the Milan section, had to direct the derby between the Nerazzurri and the Rossoneri. The last one that saw Mazzola and Rivera as opponents in the championship.

The present instead tells of Sozza, the referee in whom the great hopes of Rosetti and Rocchi are pinned, even on an international level. His age depends on him: he has just turned 36, has 19 years of career behind him and has another ten years ahead of him to establish himself as one of the best. His wife Vanessa is also a referee and they are expecting their second child. He arrived at the unified Can AB in 2020 and he has no lack of experience in big matches: he boasts a Juventus-Napoli and an Inter-Napoli in his CV, which are among the 33 Serie A matches that he has already directed . Outside national borders he was designated for the qualifying match for the next European Championships between Spain and Cyprus a few days ago, while in club competitions he has only one presence in the Conference League preliminaries and several experiences as fourth official both in the Champions League and in Europa League. In the three previous matches against Inter and the two against Milan, the Milanese have always won.

Clearly the provenance was an assist for the conspiracy theorists, when he was selected for the first times to manage Inter or Milan against other rivals. In particular, last January, controversy arose over his appointment in the match between the Nerazzurri and Napoli, with Spalletti’s team heading towards the Scudetto, immediately after being appointed international referee. The Azzurri will indeed lose that direct clash, but as expected Sozza’s direction did not contribute in the slightest to the final result achieved at San Siro. Which everyone hopes will happen again tomorrow.