I guess you were referring to Mathieu Bourdeau? He was a FIFA referee on the Canadian list, but never accepted full-time or even part-time by PRO. Because of that, unfortunately, he quit refereeing a couple of years ago.
Scrabbleship is correct that, in spite of all US promotions you mentioned, Canada is represented by the same Gantar, Fischer and Petrescu for a decade. Lauziere had a couple of games in the last two years, but he is not listed on the PRO roster. No other Canadian referees (not ARs) were brought into PRO in the last 10 years.
Yes, that's right. Sorry on the wrong name. The game I watched live in Bridgeview, everyone sitting around me (my son's team was playing in a Chicago-area tournament, and we went to the game as a team) all thought the guy did a really good job. Shame PRO never really seemed to think the same way.
My mistake, I missed the context of him speaking about Canadian Referees. Tbh tho that’s on the CSA not PRO.
Kevin Stott started when the MLS started and he's still going today. I decided to look up Lee Mason and he started in the Premier League first as an AR in 2000, but his first Center was 2006. So I'm wondering, who holds the record for longest tenure at the top league in their country. I'll bet there's some characters who reffed for a long long time, but in the modern era?
As a matter of general housekeeping, it's probably worth noting all of the following even if a few (or all) are obvious: 1) Toledo is back after not working in 2020. 2) Stott has started a season having passed the fitness test on-time for the first time in three(?) years. 3) Penso is fully recoverd from injury. 4) Perhaps most notably, Kelly returns as an on-field referee after having only worked as a VAR in 2020. This follows the end-of-season Twitter activity where he appeared to retweet a congratulations of his on-field retirement. It also follows him not getting a FIFA VMO badge after it was rumored (and seemed pretty clear, honestly) that he would. If you connect all the available dots, it does suggest he decided to reverse his on-field retirement after not getting the FIFA VMO badge. But I fully admit only a few of the needed dots are publicly available.
Well, Mike Dean beats Mason by six years as Dean was a referee starting in the 2000 season. But that still falls short of Stott by several seasons. I think everything might come down to what you define as the modern era (and, if we really dig down--what we count as a top league in an individual country... because there could be situations in very minor footballing nations where someone refereed at the top for a long time). I believe in the 70s and 80s you had several long-tenured referees in the major leagues who went into their mid-to-late 50s. The question becomes whether any of them started in their late 20s or early 30s. I don't know of any. The only truly modern referee who sprung to mind was Kim Milton Nielsen. But he started in Denmark in 1985 and then retired in 2006--so "only" 22 seasons. The problem is that for someone to have that much longevity at the top in the last three decades, the opportunities for other jobs in refereeing once they hit the international retirement age (or even before) are plentiful. So the best of the best don't stay on much after age 47 or 48 (and, in some countries, are forced to retire before then). Stott and Dean stick out as two exceptions who did fairly high-level FIFA matches but kept going for a long time after they had to give up their FIFA badges. Stott is now over a decade without his international status and Dean is nearing that mark. Very long way of saying that I think Stott might be the answer to the question, barring something very quirky in what would be considered a minor footballing nation.
A few notes: Toledo had 1 whistle last year pre-shutdown, which to be fair feels like an entirely different, 2 week season. Kelly did return to the field in the last couple weeks of the 2020 regular season, but he only did I think 3 games so he was VAR only for the playoffs.
Looks like it's Tori Penso https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2021-mls-week-5-referee-discussion.2115143/
Well, I’ll be damned. Mea culpa and egg on my face on this one. The phrase “is finally getting his chance” was used when this was conveyed to me. I interpreted that as a debut but you’re obviously right. I should have interpreted it in the vein of “it’s not a one off and here’s his chance to join the regular rotation.” Sorry, everyone.