Chris Penso (born April 28, 1982) is a referee who is active in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Career

Penso was raised in

Dover, Ohio Dover is a city in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States, along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 13,112 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Micropolitan statistical area, New Philadelphia–Dover ...

, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of the city while studying accounting at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

. He began refereeing in 1997, and also worked at the

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

and the

Ohio State Highway Patrol The Ohio State Highway Patrol is a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and has the primary responsibility of traffic enforcement in the U.S. state of Ohio. Divisions Operationally, the Patrol is divided into units whose varying task ...

. He quit the state patrol in 2006 to become a full-time referee, and officiated his first Major League Soccer match in 2011. Penso became FIFA listed in 2013 and his first international assignment was on January 30, 2013, when he refereed a match between Mexico and Denmark. He served as a FIFA referee until 2015. In 2021, Penso was added to the FIFA list as a VAR.

Internationals

Personal life

Penso's wife, Tori, is also a professional referee. In 2020, she became the first woman to referee a Major League Soccer match in 20 years. She also refereed the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final was an Women's association football, association football match that determined the winner of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. The match was played at the Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, on 20 August 2 ...

. They have three daughters.

References

External links

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archive
* 1982 births Living people American soccer referees Major League Soccer referees CONCACAF Champions Cup referees North American Soccer League (2011–2017) referees Place of birth missing (living people) People from Dover, Ohio {{US-footy-bio-stub