years birth_place otheroccupation league birth_date confederation image article_title name
-- 2008 stropkov , czechoslovakia factory manager slovak superliga 16 may 1968 uefa Ľuboš micheľ.jpg Ľuboš micheľ
 Ľuboš micheľ
Ľuboš micheľ

Ľuboš micheľ -lrb- ; born may 16 , 1968 in stropkov , czechoslovakia , `` now slovakia '' -rrb- is a former top-level slovak football referee who currently works as head of the international competitions department of fc shakhtar donetsk .
micheľ became a fifa referee at the age of 25 .
one big milestone in his career was refereeing the 2003 uefa cup final between porto and celtic .
he also appeared at the 2002 fifa world cup and euro 2004 , refereeing the quarter-final between sweden and the netherlands .
micheľ was ranked the world 's third best referee in 2005 by the iffhs , second best in 2006 and third best again in 2007 .
he was selected as a referee for the 2006 fifa world cup .
he also refereed the 2008 uefa champions league final between manchester united and chelsea .
micheľ was a manager of a car tyre factory outside of refereeing , and previously a teacher .
he speaks english , russian , german and polish in addition to his native slovak .
he founded the society `` talent '' to support young slovak football players .
micheľ has been a member of national council of the slovak republic since 2006 .
on october 23 , 2008 he retired from active referee activity due to problems with achilles tendon , that should be operated on as soon as possible .
though recovering may take only up to 4 months , Ľuboš micheľ informed the slovak football association and uefa , that he will not continue to referee anymore .
his last match was the game metalurh zaporizhya against metalist kharkiv in the ukrainian premier league .
on october 27 , micheľ signed a contract with shakhtar donetsk as the head of the international competitions department .
for a brief period of time between 2006 and 2010 , Ľuboš micheľ was serving as a lawmaker in the slovak parliament , where he was elected in the 2006 elections .
