Martin Atkinson has revealed former Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky was his favourite player to referee as he prepares to retire at the end of the season.
Atkinson, a former police officer, has been in the Premier League for 17 years. And from all those years, he has carried many fond memories from the game, despite revealing former Everton Alan Stubbs was the toughest player he dealt with, "scaring me to death."
As he now prepares to say farewell to the Beautiful Game, the 51-year-old took part in at a Q&A in a mental health charity 'If U Care Share', where he shared : "I’ve been lucky that I’ve got on with the vast majority of players but one that stands out is Tomas Rosicky. I always got on really well with him. We just pleasantly got on, not best mates or owt like that but he was always really respectful.
"And when he left Arsenal, when he retired eventually, an unknown email came through and it was from Sparta Prague asking if I will go out and referee his retirement game. You just never expect that and it was just a nice thing."
Rosicky arrived at the Emirates in 2006 from Borussia Dortmund and spent 10 seasons at the North London club. Though his spell with the Gunners was hampered by a number of long-term injuries but he helped the club to two FA Cups in the process.
Atkinson who made his top-flight debut in the 2004/05 season, said of Stubbs: "He would kick anything that moved, was hard as nails and scared me to death when I first got on.
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"He was just so tough to referee that it was, like, impossible. I learned a lot from that - you learn how to manage players."
In his career, Atkinson has refereed seven finals, including: Community Shield 2006/07 ( Chelsea vs Liverpool ), the FA Cup 2010/11 ( Manchester City vs Stoke City), EFL Cup 2013/14 (Man City vs Sunderland), Europa League 2014/15 (Dnipro vs Sevilla), Community Shield 2019/20 (Liverpool vs Man City), Championship Play-Offs 2019/20 (Brentford vs Fulham ).
Despite retiring this year, Atkinson will take up a backroom role at the Professional Game Match Official Limited (PGMOL), alongside fellow referee Jon Moss. The 51-year-old will coach the Select Group 1 (the pool of Premier League referees), while Moss will manage the group.
