At only 18 years old, this promising footballer from an illustrious Ligue 1 club is also the son of a strong music leader…
Being the son of a star is not always an advantage. If an illustrious surname allows you to benefit from a certain notoriety and sometimes to open certain doors, it also brings a certain pressure. Because comparisons can quickly become obstacles in the development and affirmation of one’s personality. Depending on the profile and reputation of the parent, it is also difficult to get rid of a label that is a little too sticky.
This may be the situation faced by Matisse Morville, an 18-year-old footballer who plays among the hopefuls of Ligue 1. His name certainly doesn’t mean much to you and yet he is the son of one of the music stars and more precisely French rap. Even a big mouth, since his father is none other than Didier Morville, better known under the alias of Joey Starr, former leader of the 1990s group, NTM.
Unlike his illustrious father, the young man has not chosen (for the moment) to pursue a career in music. Neither a rapper, nor a singer, nor an actor, Matisse Morville decided to shine on another stage, that of sport and particularly football, another passion of his father who is a big fan of PSG. A goalkeeper by training, he recently signed a contract with the hopefuls of a Ligue 1 club.
Before this signing, the young player spent time with Auxerre, a team in which Matisse Morville stayed for 4 years. He will be noticed there for a good performance during the penalty shootout of the Gambardella Cup: in the round of 16 he will make two decisive saves, allowing his team to qualify before being knocked out a few days later by Rennes during a second penalty shootout.
After spending part of his adolescence in Auxerre, Matisse Morville therefore made the decision to leave his club and sign, in February 2023, at the age of 17, a contract with the Pro2 group and the U19 team of Reims stadium. At 1.86 m tall, he joins a historic French football club and member of the French Ligue 1 championship for several seasons.
The son of actor/singer Joey Starr is French-Senegalese. He therefore has the choice of playing for the national team of France or Senegal. If for the moment the player is still young and he has time to refine his choice as long as he has not honored a selection with the A of a country, Matisse Morville has already been summoned several times within of the French U18 team, but has not yet played a single minute. The path has so far been blocked by the great hope at the post, the goalkeeper of the Le Havre reserve team, Paul Argney.
In 2024, after a first season of acclimatization in a new environment, Matisse Morville is also not an indisputable starter within the Stade de Reims youth team. With only 9 starts in the first 19 matches of the season (let’s add to that 3 matches on the bench, but also two suspension matches due to a red card), Joey Starr’s son must continue to prove himself and, why not, to climb the ladder.