NYON, June 12 -- Five days after an American border officer put him on a plane back to Istanbul, Omar Abdulkadir Artan was handed the biggest match of his life. UEFA announced Thursday that the Somali official will referee the 2026 Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa in Salzburg on August 12, making him the first African ever to take charge of European football's season-opening showpiece.

The appointment, confirmed in UEFA's official announcement, would have been a landmark on any calendar. On this one it reads as something sharper. Artan was supposed to spend this month officiating the World Cup in the United States, the only Somali among FIFA's 52 match officials, until Customs and Border Protection officers at Miami ...