At a news conference last Tuesday in which she publicly announced her transition, Berman, at 26 already a top referee in Israel’s leading soccer league, said she had always seen herself as a female, even at a young age.
She told reporters that players had already begun using the feminine form of words in Hebrew when addressing her.
“They really feel that they want to somehow take part in this process and even speak to men when it’s not necessary and speak to me as a woman. So thank you,” Berman said.
Outside the stadium in the northern city of Haifa, one fan carried a banner that hailed Berman as a “super woman, incredible, brave”.
Berman is not the first transgender referee in the soccer world. A British soccer referee, Lucy Clark, came out as transgender in 2018.
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