Pablo Antonio Pozo Quiteros was a football player for a short while, playing with a team called Magallanes. One day the team captain told Pablo that he, unlike his brother Mauricio, would not be promoted to the next level, so from that day on Pozo chose to wear black instead, following the footsteps of his father, who was a professional referee. He was 17 at the time. Six years later he reached the first division.

hard work

Pozo may be a good referee but - as he himself pointed out in an interview with Chilean press - it also took a lot of support from a lot of people to get him in the position to go to the WC 2010 in South Africa. Reaching the World Cup is clearly no longer a one man job. It probably requires the same amount of lobbying as it takes a country to host the Championship of Championships itself.

best referee

Pozo had been doing well both in Chili and abroad. Pozo had been in charge of 5 national finals. In 2008 he was chosen best Chilean referee.

international

It's a long list, better click on his "palmares". There were three matches in the 2008 Olympics including a semi. Copa Sudamericana, the U-17 World Cup, Copa Libertadores etc. In 2010 he went to the World Cup.

bad(ish) luck

In 2007 missed out on the U-17 World Cup in Korea because one of his assistants failed the fitness test. Manuel Rodríguez gave up in round 9 of his run, exhausted. In 2010, just five days before the WC 2010 Slovenia - Algeria match assigned to him, Pozo sprained his ankle in training and was replaced by Carlos Batres. Luckily Pozo recovered quickly and took charge of two matches in the World Cup.

2011

Pozo announced his retirement at the end of 2010, stating that it was best to stop at the highlight of his career. A pity, because many say he had chances to go to the next two World Cups, Pozo was very young when he started internationally.