A trigger with the stars of Barça. That is one of the relevant points of the extensive First Division resume of Jesús Gil Manzano, the referee who will direct the match between the Barcelona team and Real Madrid this Saturday. No other referee has sent off Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez, Lewandowski and Piqué. They all had in common that they were wearing the Barcelona shirt when they saw the red one in Gil Manzano’s hands.
Neymar went to the booth in 2017 in Malaga in an important match for the outcome of that League. Luis Suárez was sent off in the same season, against Atlético, and therefore missed the Cup final. Messi, in his only expulsion as a Barcelona player, had his turn in the 2021 Super Cup. Meanwhile, Lewandowski and Piqué were punished by Gil Manzano in Pamplona last season. His gesture of putting his hand to his nose later earned the Pole a three-game ban.
Gil Manzano will direct his third classic. In the previous two, victory for the Madrid team.
In the overall balance of games led by the winger, Madrid also comes out with better results. He has whistled for the whites 47 times, with 37 wins, five draws and five defeats for the Madridistas. There are 36 occasions in which he has crossed paths with the Blaugrana, with 22 wins, seven draws and seven defeats for the Barcelona fans.
With a long career in the First Division, Gil Manzano was also upset on one occasion by Villarreal manager Fernando Roig by the fact that after a match at La Ceràmica the referee left the stadium with some bags with the Real Madrid crest on them. It had not been a calm match and the traditional courtesy gifts that some clubs give to referees came up.
Energetic and without hesitation when it comes to showing cards, Gil Manzano has only directed two classics, both on white ground. The first, in 2014 with a 3-1 victory for the locals, and the second, in Valdebebas in 2021, also with a white victory, in this case 2-1. In that match he had to replace the initially designated Mateu Lahoz, who was absent due to injury.
Like other contemporary referees, Gil Manzano also appears in the Barcelona reports delivered to the judge for the Negreira case. According to the summary, in May 2016, before a Barça-Espanyol match, the reports included the following comment: “The referee with the greatest projection in Spanish football. It is important to take great care of the club’s relationship with him due to his high level and youth. He will referee important games for many seasons. He has a clean, aesthetic style that is far from authoritarian gestures.” The passage of years has taught us that he is not the referee with whom Barça has achieved the most promising results.
