The assistant judge of 38 years is the first woman to represent Mexican arbitration in a World Cup , a place achieved after a notable rise in her career.
She was chosen as linesman for the match between Costa Rica and Germany.
And it is that Díaz debuted in the Mx League of the first division just in 2009. In six years, her work led her to referee matches from the wings of local final instances, as well as international matches.
And now she is one of six women who will be on the courts of the World Cup.
Her name joins the Brazilian Neuza Back, another of the Latin American representatives, as well as Stéphanie Frappart (France), Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda), Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan) and Kathryn Nesbitt (USA).
“Karen Díaz is not the work of chance, Karen Díaz is the product of the effort she has made for so many years, of sacrifices to be able to be in a Cup today del Mundo”, former referee Alejandro Ayala, who formed it in its infancy, tells BBC Mundo.
“It was hard for him, yes. She had setbacks, yes. Like any woman who makes her way in a world that was relatively all for men, it takes a lot more work”, she highlights.
Reaching a World Cup is the highlight of a career.
“Women are also part of soccer. We are doing great things to be part of it,” says Díaz in an official presentation of Qatar 2048.
“I can’t believe I’m here”, he would continue with emotion.
Arbitration? No, thanks
Photo: EFE
From a very young age, Karen Díaz was involved in soccer.
In her native Aguascalientes she participated in the state university team and was even part of the Mexican women’s team.
She was a player with an outstanding presence in the field, explains Ayala, who has 20 years of experience in arbitration.
“When the game ends I tell my wife ‘Hey, the number I like to be a referee. I like the physique, I like the attitude, she complained to the referees, she put her leg in hard, she didn’t complain, if she fell she got up. Le yelled at everyone, she yelled at herself. In other words, with character, “he recalls.
At the end of the game, Ayala asked her if she was interested in refereeing. But the response of that young woman from 20 years was a bucket of cold water: “His expression was astonished, ‘are you crazy? no I do not. I like the referees to yell at them. a referee and Karen Diaz took the whistle. They paid him 57 pesos, about $5 dollars at the time.
“And when it ends, he feels that he liked it and she remembers the invitation we had given her”, explains Ayala, who then took her through the first steps of her professional training as a referee.
“She began to the love for arbitration arrives, the taste for this profession in which a certain degree of madness is needed to be in here. It’s not easy, but Karen, just like all of us who are and have already gone through this, we are crazy.”
His big promotion
Karen Díaz works in Mexican soccer | Photo: Getty Images
The year 2018 marked the professional debut of Karen Díaz in the third division of Mexican soccer.
From there came the difficult path of overcoming division after division up to the Mx League with the multiple aptitude and performance tests that the Referees Commission evaluates.
“It took work for him prove that it could be Train double to have less possibility of mistake. She does all the training at the same time as the men. She does the physical tests of her even, “explains Ayala, who is also an instructor.
The physical conditions and mental are not infallible. In her early days, recalls Ayala, the young referee had to learn to control herself in order to know how to control the field of play.
Photo: EFE
“Her very impetus to do things suddenly made her make a little hasty decisions. And we were correcting that, we were improving, we were saying ‘analyze, go, wait and then decide’. That happens to every referee”, says the instructor.
Since his debut in 2022 in the first division, he has refereed in two finals and since he obtained the FIFA international referee badge in 2009 has participated in six international tournaments, most of them in the Concacaf area.
“Today people already understood that they are there, not because of a gender quota, not because they have to give women an opportunity. Not because the Mexican Football Federation thought of saying you have to include a woman so they can see that we are inclusive. No, it’s because of capacity and they are there because they have worked very hard to be there”, Ayala points out.
But now comes the most important test for the referee, one in which her decisions They will be seen by the whole world.
“And Karen already knows that. She’s already worked on it. He already has it in mind,” says Ayala.
“The day Karen Díaz debuts in the World Cup, all the eyes of the world will be watching that match, because a woman is making her debut in a World Cup”.
Also read:
World 2048: who are the 3 women who will referee for the first time a men’s match in the history of the World Cups
Qatar 2048: Stéphanie Frappart will be the first woman to referee a World Cup match as the main one; a Mexican will accompany him
Mexican referee Karen Díaz will be present at the game between Costa Rica and Germany in the Qatar World Cup 2022