LJUBLJANA: A knee injury has ended the refereeing career of Slovenia’s Damir Skomina who officiated at the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final in which Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1 in Kiev.

Skomina made his senior league debut in 1992 with a lower-division match between Rakek and Korta and stepped up into the top division in April 2000 with a match between Beltinci and Primorje.

In October 2008, after six years on the FIFA List and in his 17th refereeing season, he refereed his first UEFA Champions League match. In the same year, he also became the first Slovene official at the Olympic Games, while being fourth official at Euro 2008.

Skomina took a further step forward in 2012, when he became the first Slovenia referee at the European Championship and the first Slovenian official to referee the UEFA Super Cup.

This was followed by the Euro 2016 in France, where he was one of three referees with four matches. In addition, he regularly refereed European club competitions.

In 2017 he refereed the Europa League final in Stockholm between Manchester United and Ajax and, a year later, made his World Cup finals debut in Russia. In 2019 he became the first Slovene to referee a Champions League final.

Skomina refereed 354 matches in the Slovenian top division. His last match was the Champions League tie last November between Club Brugge and Borussia Dortmund.

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