Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic, who officiated the FIFA World Cup 2026 final between Spain and Argentina, has announced his retirement.
Like a peak of glory in the season of farewell to his career, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has declared him the best referee of this year's World Cup.
In Italy, he received the prestigious Giulio Campanati award.
Vincic, 46, made his World Cup debut in Qatar, where he was assigned to officiate 2 matches. He has 3 more matches in the 2026 tournament, before the Spain - Argentina match marks his sixth World Cup match in his career.
One of the highlights in his career is the 2024 UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium, one of the most prestigious tasks that a European referee can receive.
He has also officiated matches in the European Championship (EURO), World Cup qualifiers, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Nations League and FIFA Club World Cup.
Born in Maribor on November 25, 1979, Vincic was the sixth referee at EURO 2012 and served with the Slovenian team in the quarter-final match between Greece and Germany.
In 2013, he officiated the final of the European U17 Championship in Slovakia and the semi-finals. In 2015, he first officiated in the knockout rounds of European tournaments, when he officiated the 16th round match of the Europa League between Guingamp and Dynamo Kiev.
At EURO 2016, he was the sixth referee in the Slovenian referee group led by Damir Skomina.
In the last round of the 2016 Champions League group stage, he debuted as the official referee in the match between Manchester City and Celtic. Since then, he has regularly officiated Champions League and Europa League matches (72 matches in total).
At the end of 2019, he was included in the European elite referee group.
His experience spans all levels of international football.
He worked at the FIFA U17 World Cup in India in 2017, UEFA U21 in Poland and FIFA U20 World Cup in 2019 before debuting as official referee at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
There, he officiated a match in which Argentina unexpectedly lost to Saudi Arabia in the group stage, starting a World Cup journey whose peak was the honor of being the referee of the 2026 final.
