Willy Delazo – referee of AEK – Panathinaikos: The broker who beat cancer at 20 and has a personal honor

A life full of energy. When not refereeing in Rome for Lazio-Bayern at Champions League or in Budapest for Ferentsvaros-Olympiakos at Conference LeagueThe Willy Delazo he wears a businessman’s jacket.

Three years ago, the young French referee founded “Delajod Promotion Immobilière”, a family real estate company with four employees, including Sandrine, his mother.

The offices are just two minutes from the football stadium of Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny, the team he played for. At the age of 13, and a year ahead of schedule, he passed the theory test for the referee entrance exam. It took just ten years for him to whistle in Ligue 2 at the age of 23. Another two years later he would rise to Ligue 1 and, at 25, he would set a new record as the youngest referee in France.

Dad at 24, company director at 28, o Willy Delazo he did everything too early, too fast. Very fast; Looking back, his rapid rise to Ligue 2 looks like a… poisoned chalice. “I was completely unprepared. I went through hell for a few months,” says the man who had just quit his job in Geneva, Switzerland, moving and storing art, to devote himself fully to refereeing. “I was full of anxiety. I could not sleep. I was finishing my matches with cramps and a dry throat”.

He himself decided to create a team around him. He is surrounded by a physiotherapist, a gymnast (Benoît Naves) and a psychologist (Frédéric Perez) to overcome his difficulties in the same way he had overcome cancer in the leg three years earlier, when he was 20 years old. A pivotal moment in the career of the promising referee, who would have thrown in the towel if not for the in-depth work done with his mental trainer, one of the pillars of his performance even today. “We worked on reducing fears, breathing and beliefs that create anxiety”. He became a broker to compensate for the glitz and glamor of football. His passion may be refereeing, but he had to do something outside of football to balance himself out.

Since then, Mr Willy Delazoan international from 2020, continued his meteoric rise in refereeing, never turning his back on real estate. “It allows me to reconnect with real life during the week when I get in touch with someone who has just broken up or lost their partner and needs help getting back on their feet”. The dream of the child born in the fields of Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny: is to establish himself in Champions League and to whistle at World Cup.