Esteban Daniel Ostojich Vega (born 12 April 1982) is a Uruguayan

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He has been a FIFA international referee since 2016.

Refereeing career

Ostojich began officiating in the Primera División in Uruguay in 2013. In 2016, he was included on the

FIFA International Referees List The FIFA International Referees List is an annual publication of the global list of FIFA international referees in the football-variants controlled by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) – association football (outdoor ...

for the first time. He officiated his first

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

club fixture on 11 August 2016 in the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

in a match between Sol de América of Paraguay and Jorge Wilstermann of Bolivia. The following year, he officiated his first match in the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

, a group stage meeting between Brazilian club Grêmio and Chilean club

Deportes Iquique Club de Deportes Iquique S.A.D.P. is a Chilean football club based in Iquique that is a current member of the Primera B. Founded in 1978, the club's home stadium is the Estadio Tierra de Campeones, which has a 13,171 capacity. Iquique has spent ...

on 12 April 2017. Ostojich officiated his first senior international fixture on 16 November 2018, a friendly match between

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The following year, he was selected as a referee for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 ...

in Brazil, where he officiated a group stage match between

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He has also worked frequently as a

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee. The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...

(VAR), including in the second leg of the

2018 Copa Libertadores Finals The 2018 Copa Libertadores Finals was the two-legged final to decide the winners of the 2018 Copa Libertadores, the 59th edition of the Copa Libertadores, South America's premier international club football tournament organised by CONMEBOL. T ...

, the

2019 Copa Libertadores Final The 2019 Copa Libertadores Final was the final match which decided the winner of the 2019 Copa Libertadores, the 60th edition of the Copa Libertadores, South American's top-tier continental club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The ...

and the first leg of the 2020 Recopa Sudamericana. He was appointed as a VAR for the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betw ...

in Qatar, and was assigned to three matches including the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

between

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

of England and

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

of Brazil. Due to health reasons, Ostojich replaced his compatriot Leodán González as a referee at the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, held in February 2021 in Qatar. He was selected to officiate a second round match between Mexican club UANL and South Korean club

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan Hyundai FC ( ko, 울산 현대 축구단) is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in ...

, as well as the

between German club

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and UANL.

Personal life

Ostojich is a native of

San José de Mayo San José de Mayo () is the capital city of the San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location and geography The city is located at the centre of the state, on the intersection of Route 3 with Route 11, from the centre of Montevideo. The r ...

, Uruguay.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ostojich, Esteban 1982 births Living people Uruguayan people of Croatian descent People from San José de Mayo Uruguayan football referees Copa América referees