Belgium's referee of the year will take charge of the second leg

Jérome Efong Nzolo will take charge of Thursday's important second leg match in Podgorica.

Nzolo was born on the 21st September 1974 in Gabon. He moved to Belgium in 1995, where he began studying electrical engineering. He also started to referee part time, while he studied at school. Nzolo made his debut in the first division in 2005, before progressing on to take charge of international matches in 2008. He was a match official in the U19 European Championship in 2009.

Some interesting factors about Thursday's match official:

- he was invited in 2012 to referee a league match in Saudi Arabia. What made it interesting is that he officiated a match involving Gyorgy Sandor's former club Ittihad FC. 

- he is one of 26 children, which is not surprising as his father had a total of seven wives.

- he loves to laugh a lot and enjoys not always being serious, but this is not the situation when he referee's a game, which he takes very seriously. He is one of the most liked match officials in Belgium.

Nzolo will be assisted in Podgorica by Gregory Crotteux and Cedric Lescalier, with the fourth official being Tim Pots.

Author: David Rechnitzer

More news