Menachem Ashkenazi - Biography

Menachem Ashkenazi (August 6, 1934 – November 13, 2000) was an Israeli international football referee, born in Bulgaria, active during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first Asian referee who officiated in a World Cup.

Born in 1934 in a Jewish Sefardic family in Bulgaria, in 1936 he emigrated with his parents to the mandatory Palestine. Since his childhood played soccer and distinguished himself at 16 at player in the youth football team of the club Hapoel Petah Tikva. But following a severe fracture of leg had to stop his career as football player. He officiated in the Final of 1964 Olympic tournament (the only Israeli referee ever to do so) and also in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He was in charge in one of the most memorable matches of that World Cup, Portugal's 5:3 win over North Korea in the quarterfinal.