Natalie Simon (born ''ca.'' 1990) is an American international soccer

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 ...

for the

Professional Referee Organization Professional Referee Organization (PRO) is the organization responsible for managing the referee and assistant referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, working alongside the United States Soccer Federation ...

of the United States. In 2022, she became one of four American women to hold a FIFA international refereeing badge, and the first African-American woman to do.

Early life

Simon was born in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, the descendant of slaves on both sides of her family, and is of

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

Native American heritage from her maternal great-grandmother. She began playing soccer at age 8 while still in Louisiana, then later attended high school and played travel team soccer in

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

. Simon went to college at

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

, where she also played soccer as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Simon described her career as a player as being "a referee's worst nightmare. ... If I made it through a game without a

yellow card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

, it was a good day." An assistant coach at Stetson was a referee assessor and recommended officiating to Simon as a way to remain engaged with soccer after graduation.

Career

Collegiate soccer

Simon joined the

National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association The National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association (NISOA) is the organization responsible for improving the quality of officiating at college soccer matches in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonl ...

(NISOA) in 2015, which named her Region VI (Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina) Referee of the Year in 2019.

National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)

On May 8, 2021, Simon officiated the

2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship, the final match of the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, was a soccer match held on May 8, 2021 at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, USA. It was contested by Portland Thorns FC and NJ/NY Gotham FC, the winner ...

, her first assignment for a tournament's finals. On October 29, 2022, Simon officiated the 2022 NWSL championship match.

International officiating

In August 2019, Simon was one of 12 referees to participate in

Concacaf The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

's Program of Refereeing Excellence. On April 12, 2022, Simon officiated her first

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's Association football, soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four FIFA Women's World Cup, Wom ...

match as a center referee. On January 4, 2023, the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

Referee Committee and FIFA re-appointed Simon to the 2023 FIFA Panel to officiate international matches. That list included

Alyssa Nichols Alyssa Nichols (born January 15, 1996) is an American soccer referee. Early life Nichols was born on January 15, 1996, in Jackson, Mississippi, to Pearl and Andrew Pennington. She attended Murrah High School in Jackson, where she was a member of t ...

, the second Black American woman to earn a FIFA badge, who viewed Simon as a role model.

References

External links

*
Professional Referee Organization profile

Stetson University player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Natalie Living people American soccer referees Women association football referees Women's association football referees Stetson University alumni American people of Choctaw descent American women referees and umpires African-American sports officials African-American women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League referees