for some reason this picture and its description always makes me tear up.
Italian soccer referee Pierluigi Collina. photog credit: Mike Moore.
Collina, who officiated at the 2002 World Cup final between Germany and Brazil, had already four times been voted 'Referee of the Year' by the FIFA international football association. He announced that he would be stepping down in 2005. He will be 45, the mandatory retirement age for referees.
He expressed his reluctance to go, but noted that people in his profession had to be bound by the rules.
-2003 World Press Photo archives
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