On Saturday, March 25 stands for that DFB team the first international match after the World Cup debacle. In Mainz it is against the South American representative Peru. With Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi, a woman will referee the game. But who is the referee actually?
Female referees in men’s soccer are still a rarity. However, the match between Germany and Peru will be refereed by Italy’s Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi.
The 32-year-old referee was born in Livorno and obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Pisa in 2014 and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Florence in 2017.
Since 2019, the Italian has been able to call herself a FIFA referee and referee international games. Since then, her career has steadily gone uphill. In the 2020/21 season, she refereed Serie C games for the first time before refereing Serie B games in 2021/22.
She made her Serie A debut on October 2, 2022, officiating the match between Sassuolo Calcio and US Salernitana. It was their only first division game so far. Internationally, she was in action at the U17 World Cup in 2022.
The referee has officiated a total of twelve games this season, eight of them in Serie B. Caputi’s assistants on Saturday are her compatriots Alessandro Giallatini and Ciro Carbone.
Has a woman previously officiated an international match for the DFB men?
It is only the third time that a woman has officiated an international match for the German men’s national team. But the last time wasn’t that long ago. France’s Stéphanie Frappart was also the referee for the 4-2 victory in the last World Cup group match against Costa Rica. In 2021, Croatian Ivana Martincic officiated in the 9-0 win in World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein.
