Héctor Walter Baldassi (born 5 January 1966 in Río Ceballos

Río Ceballos

Río Ceballos is a city and tourist destination in the Province of Córdoba located in the center of Argentina. Río Ceballos is located at the foot of the Sierras Chicas, about 30 km north of the provincial capital of Córdoba and is part of the Greater Córdoba area...

, Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

) is an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 football referee. His first Argentine first division

Primera División Argentina

The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...

 was in 1998 and only two years later he debuted internationally. Nicknamed La Coneja (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 for The She Rabbit) Baldassi officiated several CONMEBOL

CONMEBOL

The South American Football Confederation , commonly known as CONMEBOL , is the continental governing body of association football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations...

 club competitions including the final match of the 2008

Copa Libertadores 2008

The 2008 Copa Libertadores de América was the 49th edition of the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. This marked the first year the competition was sponsored by Spanish bank Santander. As such, the competition is officially the 2008 Copa Santander...

 Copa Libertadores, and participated in several international competitions including the 2004

Copa América 2004

The Copa América 2004 was the 41st edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held in Peru, who hosted the tournament for the sixth time,...

 Copa América

Copa América

The Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body...

 and the 2008 Olympic Games

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. He was called for the 2007

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the sixteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup , hosted by Canada from June 30 to July 22, 2007. Argentina defeated Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth...

 FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 World Cup

The FIFA U-20 World Cup, until 2005 known as the FIFA World Youth Championship, is the world championship of football for male players under the age of 20 and is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association...

, but was later dismissed because one of his assistants didn't pass the medical tests.

He was preselected as a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...

, officiating his first World Cup match in Ghana's 1–0 win over Serbia on 13 June 2010. Then, he officiated Netherlands 1-0 win over Japan. in the round of 16, he officiated the match between Portugal and Spain, awarding a controversial goal to the Spanish team, that was confirmed after the replays to be a goal obtained from offside position.