Joe Dickerson never set out to be a referee. As a player, he was told that reffing would be to make money on the side, learn responsibility, and – more pertinent to his team – learn the sport and begin to understand it on a granular level.
Those early assignments in the San Jose area have blossomed into a career that saw Dickerson honored as US Soccer’s male referee of the year in 2025. All of it has been driven by his ability to drill into details – something he’ll be doing a lot of as a VAR official in the replay booth for this summer’s World Cup.
