Sapir Berman

Sapir Berman was born in 1994 in Kiryat Bialik

Berman was born in Kiryat Bialik. She began playing football at age 6, as a child with Hapoel Afek and as a teenager with Hapoel Haifa. In 2011 she joined the Israeli referees' association.

After refereeing in Liga Leumit, she became a main referee in the Israeli Premier League in the 2020/2021 season. In April 2021 she announced that she had begun gender transition and changed her name to Sapir. On 3 May 2021 she refereed a Premier League match as a woman for the first time, Hapoel Haifa against Beitar Jerusalem.

Hormone treatment made it hard to regain match fitness, so she returned to Liga Leumit for a time before going back to the Premier League. In December 2024 she was named an international referee. On 17 March 2025 she refereed Northern Ireland against Montenegro in a European under 17 girls' qualifier, becoming the first transgender person to referee an international football match.

In 2022 she got engaged to Bar Yitzhak Avasker, and they married in June 2023. The documentary film Sapir, about her story, premiered at the Docaviv festival in 2024. In August 2026 she did not pass the Wingate Institute fitness tests.