We had the pleasure of sitting down with Mati Fondato, a former Argentina football player who played for teams in six different countries, including his career start at Newells Old Boys. Today, Mati has shifted his focus to the world of art and is quickly making a name for himself as an emerging artist. In this interview, he shares his story and discusses his passion for football and art

Hey Mati thanks a lot for taking the time and speak to onetwo, how did you move into the world of art ?

I’ve always loved drawing since I’ve been a kid, and was always curious about trying painting one day, about 5 or 6 years ago I made a portrait of my friend DeAndre Yedlin, he posted it on his socials and since then I’ve been painting all the time, at the beginning it was mostly portraits and football related paintings but then with time, I expanded to different sports, big personalities, music, cars, pets, abstracts, lets say all kind of things.

What piece of art are you most proud of?

I have two pieces I’m really proud of, more because of the feeling and what happened thanks to them, I’m a football man, I’m originally from Argentina so both represent my biggest emotional achievements: one is a portrait of Diego Maradona, requested by an English fan that Diego actually commented on himself on my Instagram post, and the other one was a portrait of Lionel Messi that gave me the chance to meet him personally through a friend in common. I’ve linked with, in my opinion, the two greatest of all time, both from my country, so that’s kind of priceless in all senses.

That’s amazing, I wish I had the chance to meet Lionel in person. What are the other famous clients you worked for?

I have painted for many players such as Raheem Sterling, Miguel Almiron, Ngolo Kante, Leon Bailey, Mauricio Pochettino, Zack Steffen, Jermain Defoe, Martin Dubravka, Fabricio Coloccini, DeAndre Yedlin, Tim Weah, Kenedy, Mo Diame, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ayoze Perez, Eric Lamela, Willy Caballero, Allan St Maximin, and some more from LaLiga, Serie A, the Argentinian League and MLS.

That’s an impressive number of VIPs you have worked for, which means your work speak for itself. Obviously you had a football career before to move into art, do you miss playing the game sometimes ?

To be completely honest If I play a match even with friends, it brings me of course that great feeling, I would say that’s probably the moment I miss it the most, but not in a bad way. In general I try to make myself busy with new stuff and since I started painting I have found a similar feeling considering it’s another big passion. But I guess if you ask this to any footballer he would feel the same.

You played in a number of countries, have you taken on board those cultures into your new found career?

Of course I’ve been privileged enough to live in 6 different countries with quite different cultures, and that is always awakening no matter what you do in life, as it gives you completely different perspectives, traditions and philosophies that myself, personally, try to understand and analyse the best of all of them to feed and try at some point to improve mine. It used to happen in football and now it also happens with art.

Before we let you go, what exciting projects do you have coming up?

The idea is to keep learning, keep improving and keep discovering myself deeper as an artist. At the moment I’m working on two collections, an abstract one and classic cars, both for exhibitions and I’m always working and planning to open my own gallery where people can come and enjoy personally most of my work.

We thank Mati for his time and we can’t wait for what’s coming his way. We loved to experiencing his incredible energy and the crossover between football and art.

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