He flashed that smile, the one he always wears when he sends a player off or awards a penalty. Even though Victor Gomes was dressed in jeans and a shirt, it was hard not to separate the man from the referee at Safa House last week.
And he made it even harder by thrusting out a whistle from his pocket as he sat down at the front table to make an address.
“I am only used to using this thing, not this one,” he said pointing to the whistle in his left hand before lifting up the microphone in his right.
Cue laughter from the media and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi and Safa officials gathered for the function to bid farewell to Gomes, assistant referee Zakhele Siwela and medico Dr Thulani Ngwenya before their departure for the Fifa World Cup in Qatar.
No-one was laughing though when Gomes opened up about what the appointment to officiate at the sport’s ultimate stage means to him.
I never realised I would be so stubborn as to stay committed to my dream and work hard to achieve it.
— Victor Gomes
“This is a very emotional opportunity,” Gomes said, the smile replaced by that grim expression many players in the Premier Soccer League and continent know not to mess with. “When you work all your life for something and it starts happening, you become emotional because you don’t realise time is so short.”
All his life is not an overstatement, for Gomes has essentially worked towards officiating at the World Cup forever.
Now 39, he turns 40 three days before the World Cup final that he hopes to officiate in on December 18, and says he has dreamt of refereeing at the big stage since he was 14. That’s 25 years of chasing a dream and working towards a goal.
“Being selected to go to the World Cup is a small boy’s dream,” Gomes revealed during our one-on-one interview after the media conference.
“I never realised I would be so stubborn as to stay committed to my dream and work hard to achieve it. And I am grateful to God for giving me this opportunity that I am now able to go and represent my country, my association and my family. I am blessed.”
Gomes says he started refereeing at 14 when “I would beg my coach to allow me to referee during our matches” because “I was not really a good player”.
He started dreaming of officiating on a global stage a year later when he was 15, watching Bafana Bafana make their debut at the world’s greatest football theatre.
“Watching the France 1998 World Cup, I said I want to be on that stage some day. And immediately after the tournament I called my local association to get enrolled, and I started working. I told you I am stubborn,” he said, chuckling.
That stubbornness helped him move up the ranks of match officiating until he made his professional debut in 2008, then go on to become arguably the most recognised referee on the continent.
While he has earned a reputation for his penchant for handing out red cards and awarding penalties, Gomes is pleased that while people always talk about those, they seldom say he was wrong.
“Being a referee I’ve been blessed to have people recognise me everywhere I go. And I’ve been blessed to never have negative attention. I meet people, and we joke around.
I am not false, I am consistent in who I am and that’s what made me who I am
“It is nice when people talk about these things [penalties and red cards] because nobody ever says they are wrong. They are just saying how many. If they [his refereeing decisions] were wrong, I’d be worried, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
He is at the summit of his chosen career — the married father of two boys set to officiate at the highest level of the sport. He looks back and acknowledges he was inspired by those who came before him, though he has never tried to be anyone but himself.
“I saw our big boss [legendary Italian referee] Pierluigi Collina, who motivated us. And there were some good African referees like Eddie Maher and Jerome [Damon], who made me aspire. I learnt good things from them.”
Still, he remained true to himself. Gomes insists that with him, what you see is what you get.
“I am not false, I am consistent in who I am, and that’s what made me who I am. I have always believed that I cannot be this referee or that referee. I have to use my personality, I’ve always said that to be a referee is not a day job, it is a lifelong commitment.”
It is for that reason that he takes discipline on and off the field seriously.
“Imagine you see me on a Friday night at a local tavern drinking and the next day I am doing a derby match. You would laugh at me and not take me seriously.
“Refereeing is a lifelong commitment. And it is not only on the field, it is off it too, because people see you for who you are, and it is important that you portray or are seen to portray this positive image. Fortunately for me, I’ve never portrayed. It is who I am.”
The smile returns to the face of the man who earned plaudits for how he blew the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal and Egypt in February, and it is sure to light up stadiums in Qatar, perhaps even until December 18.
The World Cup kicks off on Sunday with the Group A game between hosts Qatar and Ecuador at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor (7pm in Qatar, 6pm SA time).
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