Meet Kathryn Nesbitt, the Philly referee who recently officiated the World Cup final

As with most sports, most soccer referees usually don’t like being in the spotlight. But Kathryn Nesbitt knows that over the last few years, she has earned attention for good reasons.

The Philadelphia resident’s growing resumé in the world’s game includes being the first woman to work a Concacaf men’s World Cup qualifying game; working an MLS Cup and Concacaf men’s Gold Cup final; the 2019 and 2023 women’s World Cups; and the 2022 men’s World Cup.

Last year in Qatar, Nesbitt gained further prominence by being a reserve assistant for the World Cup final. This year in Australia, Nesbitt was a sideline official for the final.

So, yes, the 34-year-old — who’s been officiating games since age 14 but didn’t make it her full-time life until 2019 — is becoming rather well-known.

Nesbitt grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and later studied chemistry at nearby St. John Fisher University. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, then split her time between teaching chemistry at Michigan and later Towson — while also refereeing. She moved to Philadelphia in 2019, and a few weeks before she headed to France for that year’s women’s World Cup, she decided to focus fully on soccer.

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“I loved it and was getting these incredible opportunities, and I just wasn’t sure how far I could take both of these things at the same time, until there was kind of a turning point for me,” Nesbitt told The Inquirer in an interview this week.

“I kind of knew that I had something special going on with refereeing, and I wanted to see what would happen if I put all my time and effort into it,” she said. “So that’s ultimately how I decided to leave my job in chemistry and focus solely on refereeing.”

Nesbitt still vividly remembers the moment she learned of her first World Cup trip: the middle of a workout run in Baltimore. And not because FIFA told her. The press release was posted on social media, and word started spreading.

“I could feel my phone on my arm buzzing like crazy, and I’m like, ‘Why am I getting so many messages? What’s going on?’” Nesbitt said. “So I actually stopped, turned my phone over, looked at it, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to a World Cup.’ And let me tell you, the rest of that run, I mean, I’ve never run so fast in my life, I was so excited.”

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Three years later, an even bigger invitation came: She was appointed to a group of the first six female refs to work at a men’s World Cup last fall in Qatar.

“One of the reasons I had left my job to kind of see what I could do was [that] I was having success in the men’s domestic league [MLS], and I kind of knew that I could do a little bit more,” Nesbitt said. “I just wasn’t sure if the world was ready for women in international soccer, and things like that. And so I put the work in. I was doing everything I could possibly do, and then to get the invitation to go to Qatar — to know that that was going to open doors for women all over the world, that feeling was just the most special thing.”

After a few games as a video review official and a few more as a backup assistant at stadiums, she finally got on the sideline for the England-Senegal game in the round of 16. Her trip was capped with her role on the championship game’s crew.

“That round of 16 game … will probably be forever my favorite game that I’ve ever done,” Nesbitt said. “And then to get the final I mean, that’s just the biggest thing that we can do in our careers. I was absolutely shocked, but very excited to know that I had earned that — but also, to get to represent what women can do, to really show our abilities.”

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At this year’s women’s World Cup, Nesbitt was one of many U.S.-based officials. But it was still a surprise when she was appointed to fellow American Tori Penso’s crew for the final. FIFA’s cameras filmed the announcement at a referees’ meeting in Sydney, along with the crew’s heartfelt reactions.

“This one I’m still speechless on because it just happened,” Nesbitt told The Inquirer. “You don’t expect this, right? You work so hard for this, and you know your abilities and things like that, but anything can happen in the final, it can go to anybody. When I heard my name and the rest of the U.S. crew, that we were all going to get to work on the final of a World Cup for the first time ever, I mean, that’s so special.”

It was even more special because it was the first time an American refereeing crew was appointed to a women’s World Cup final. The biggest reason for that is that the U.S. team has played in five of the nine all-time finals, so Americans couldn’t officiate. They weren’t picked for the other three before this year.

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“It wasn’t even, like, a dream,” Nesbitt said. “The U.S. team is always very good, so it’s very difficult for referees to ever even have this opportunity. So it still came as a surprise.”

Nesbitt has taken some time off since returning from Australia in late August. But now she’s ready to get back to the sidelines, and she’ll do so this weekend — coincidentally, not far from home. She’ll be on the sidelines Saturday night at Subaru Park as an assistant for the Union-Cincinnati game (7:30 p.m., Apple TV).

“Usually, when there’s articles about us after games, it’s not always the best thing,” Nesbitt said. “This has been an incredible experience, not ever something I imagined. I get to work in this incredible job, I absolutely love soccer, I love refereeing, and all my hard work and everything has led to me having a ton of success. That feeling alone is the best part of it.”

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