Mathieu Cafaro (born 25 March 1997) is a French professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the ...

Club career

Toulouse

Cafaro is a youth exponent from

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

. He made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

debut on 10 September 2015 against

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-hi ...

. He was released from the club on 3 April 2017 with

Odsonne Édouard Odsonne Édouard (born 16 January 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Crystal Palace. Having progressed through the youth ranks of AF Bobigny, Édouard signed with Paris Saint-Germain in J ...

due to inappropriate behavior outside the club which consisted of shooting a passer-by with an

airsoft gun Airsoft guns are replica toy guns used in airsoft sports. They are a special type of low-power smoothbore air guns designed to shoot airsoft pellets, non-metallic spherical projectiles (pb) often colloquially (but incorrectly) referred to as "B ...

. He later admitted that he was the one that shot the gun. On 13 June, the Toulouse Prosecutor asked that Édouard be charged with a four months suspended prison sentence and a €6,000 fine for his involvement in the incident. Édouard assured that Cafaro was the author of the shot while Cafaro then claimed to have not been in the car at the time of the shooting.

Reims

Cafaro helped

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded ...

win the

2017–18 Ligue 2 The 2017–18 Ligue 2 (referred to as the Domino's Ligue 2 for sponsorship reasons) season was the 79th season since its establishment. Teams There are 20 clubs in the league, with three promoted teams from Championnat National replacing the ...

, which earned them promotion to the

for the 2018–19 season. He participated in one league match during the campaign, a 3–1 win over

Niort Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in the ...

on 27 April 2018. Cafaro would go on to score twelve goals in eighty-two

matches for Reims before leaving the club in January 2022.

Standard Liège

On 11 January 2022, Cafaro signed for Belgian club

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the mo ...

. The deal reportedly involved no transfer fee, although Reims were given a "considerable" sell-on percentage fee.

Saint-Étienne

On 20 July 2022, Cafaro joined

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

club

on a season-long loan with an option-to-buy. He eventually joined the club permanently in June 2023.

Personal life

Cafaro is of Italian descent through his paternal grandfather.

Honours

Reims *

: 2017–18

References

1997 births Living people Men's association football midfielders French men's footballers French sportspeople of Italian descent Toulouse FC players Stade de Reims players Standard Liège players AS Saint-Étienne players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Belgian Pro League players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium {{France-footy-defender-1990s-stub