Romanian referee Alexandru Tudor shares moments of tension that brought him closer to God

Basilica News Agency – 26/11/2019

The former Romanian referee Alexandru Tudor spoke about the moments of tension in his carrier that brought him closer to God and shared his moral and religious beliefs during a show at the National Television (TVR) on Saturday night.

He remembered a sign received from God through the intercessions of Saint John the New of Suceava in a very pressing situation.

‘Experiencing stressful situations, I discovered God,’ said Alexandru Tudor who is now the manager of the Junior Centre of Football Club FCSB.

A sign for me from the Good God

‘I was delegated to a playoff between Foresta and FC Baia Mare and the commission secretary then told me, “Go now and make yourself unavailable to the Sports Clinic because they want to kick you out of arbitration with this match”,’ Alexandru Tudor told Eugenia Voda during the Profesionistii Show being convinced that he could have been eliminated even without doing something wrong.

He was so stressed out that he did not talk to anyone and could not prepare for the match, but went out to wander on the streets of Suceava.

“An old truck passed in front of my eyes. I saw some priests who were getting up and down the truck. They were monks who took holy water and sprinkled the people around,” said the former referee who crossed paths with the traditional procession that takes place in Suceava on June 24 with the relics of Saint John the New.

“I didn’t understand what was happening,” he shared. “They sprinkled my face and I had a kind of awakening. Then I went to the match waiting to be destroyed.”

“And now I remember an important situation in the game in which a player simulated and in which if it was set from a certain angle it could become a very big fault of mine that I did not award a penalty, although he simulated and I knew this thing, I had seen it close enough.”

“I could have been destroyed in that game,” insisted Alexandru Tudor.

“At the end, nobody told me anything. The observer at the last match had given me a 4 or a 5. Now, it was peace and quiet. The observer gave me a 9.5. There is no such thing in our field. You cannot deserve such a mark in arbitration. ”

“All things have settled into a happy end and when I got home I found out why. I looked at the calendar and see: «Translation of the relics of Saint John the New of Suceava», which happened with the respective truck. It was a big holiday in Suceava. And then I understood that it is a sign to me from the good God that bad things do not happen without His permission,” referee Tudor told TVR.

Tudor spoke calmly about the injustices that were done to him and about the criticisms or offenses he faced, noting that they helped him to grow spiritually.

“Injustice is a way of growing yourself spiritually. Injustice is a very useful path for every soul. The moment you succeed in welcoming injustice you are headed to joy.”

The referee with most of the First League matches evoked the moments of suffering that he went through when he was 18, when he dreamed of becoming a footballer, but was shot in the foot during the events of 1989.

He said he was aware that it was the will of the Lord and did not feel that as a “dream cut off”, but that God so decided for him, another direction.

I felt my soul was flying

Tudor spoke of his true, ‘professional’ confession made. He said that he did not feel fulfilled following his confessions and that he searched hard to find a spiritual director, who is now at Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest.

‘I felt my soul was flying after confession,’ he shared with Eugenia Voda during the show.

‘When I left there, I was flying above the ground. That was the feeling. So much joy! It is something that makes you come back all the time, to try to get closer to God.’

The separators

Alexandru Tudor referred to discipline and morals, the education of his children, money, and technology.

He stated that his 16-year-old boy is the only one in his grade who does not have a touch screen phone and that he is “unhappy on the one hand, but on the other hand, he understands.”

“Once this phone has become our master, I do not want my child to be in possession of a phone to act posh and be just like the others.”

“We all know that this phone does not do well for children. The relationship that is made between souls, between people is quite different when you are not separated from these devices. This is how I call them at home, separators,” admitted the guest of Eugenia Voda.

Money and powerful people

Asked what the suitcase would look like in front of which he could not resist, the former referee said that selling your soul for money, for power or a position is an embarrassing matter, which denigrates you as a human being.

“The most influential people I have ever seen in my life are people who swore to be poor: the monks of the Holy Mount, people who are able to give you their heart and life only to see you happy.”

Tudor said he learned from great football players that modesty is needed for performance. He said that he does not consider himself neither modest nor kind, but “I think I can do good things”.

Asked what he would do if he could impose something on those who look at him through a simple whistle, Alexandru Tudor said:

“I would try to make people aware that life is more blissful, it’s closer to joy when you do something good for the one close to you.”

Tudor “whistled” the end of the interview with the souvenir whistle he received from FC Tottenham.

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