Love – the most important driving force
Matoma at the Opening Ceremony of the Oslo 2025 Homeless World Cup. Image: Donnie Nicholson
Homeless World Cup – let’s go!!
Matoma's voice carries heavy techno rhythms. Footballers from all over the globe have just marched up Karl Johan, led by a full-bodied brass from the Salvation Army's horn music. Now they wave flags from Tanzania, India, Finland, Uganda and Canada. It takes a long time when 500 players from 48 nations have to pass by the mixing desk and show themselves to the audience sitting close together in the stands outside Oslo City Hall. Or sitting? The supporters dance between the folding chairs and roar along as Matoma's tropical house songs thunder out over the Oslo Fjord.
"I don't want to see you sitting right now," Matoma shouts, swinging his right hand and asking people to fix their gaze a little higher.
Matoma smiles under his sunglasses:
"I am incredibly happy to participate in such a meaningful event in my home country," says Tom Stræte Lagergren, which is his real name.
The music producer who has collaborated with world stars such as Enrique Iglesias, Akon, Astrid S, Nico & Vinz and Jennifer Lopez is now standing on the turf of the main pitch and welcoming people who have been standing on bare ground. Some have struggled with drug addiction, others have felt the consequences of poverty. They have lost security and belonging, but found it again in the community of street football.
"When I look out over this group, I think unity. But also solidarity, all the aid workers and the administration, the whole network that makes this happen. It gives hope in society to see all the partners, including myself, who show up at this free event and do it out of pure love and joy.”
The 34-year-old has a flair for highlighting those who are not used to being cheered on.
"If you only take care of the average in society because they are 'productive', and not take care of those who are at the lowest, you create a disharmony in a society that really needs everyone. Presence is perhaps what society lacks the most. That's why it's so nice to have events like this, where you're present”
The Power of Belonging
A few minutes before he takes charge of the opening show, he stretches his legs on a bench and recharges with a waffle from the Salvation Army's service tent.
"This is such a great cause: Sport is a joy for so many. Being homeless is tragic, but then you find joy and strength through football to master your life. You find a power that makes you get out of it, which is amazing. It shows the strength of belonging, having someone who can be your support, not only on the football field, but also on the sidelines.”
He knows what it's like to be left out, success has not come for free. Matoma has been open about the bullying he was subjected to in primary school. It was not easy to be a little boy with piano ambitions and a hearing aid who barely understood what the others were saying. The big guys saw their way to take out their aggression on him and subjected him to serious violence. What kept him up when it was at its worst was to be physically active. In that sense, he recognizes himself in the athletes at the Oslo 2025 Homeless World, even though football was not his favourite.
"I was mostly involved in football because of the social aspect, because it's a team sport. But swimming was great fun. And table tennis, where I played with people who were disabled, who were in wheelchairs and were among the best in the country.”
Today, he appreciates both success and adversity. Working with a girl with cancer and a man in a wheelchair has given him other perspectives on life.
Din indre verdi
Matoma broke through with a bang with Old Thing Back, the world's most shared song in February 2015. A rather raw rap that differs from today's productions that are about hope, anti-bullying and inclusion. No wonder NRK Super named Matoma this year's BlimE artist for the song Be with which he made together with Agnete Saba. The message is clear: To dare to include others – especially those who are a little on the outside.
Matoma has met people at their most vulnerable. He has worked in nursing homes and in psychiatry. He himself is not afraid to show emotion and offer warmth. Tears flowed for both the judges and the audience on TV2's The Voice when he embraced a participant and shared his hard-earned experiences:
"In today's society, we are supposed to be so ourselves. Every day we go and punish ourselves. We are not good enough, and look for the materialistic. But in the end: You are beautiful the way you are! You are beautiful the way you are made. And you know what? It's so nice."
It took some time before he was able to take in his own self-worth. It was his girlfriend Maren, who became his wife this summer, who found the words that reached in: "You are good enough the way you are".
"My wife made me love myself for who I am. That certainty has landed a long time ago. The most important thing a person can learn is to understand their inner value. Everyone struggles with things in everyday life and can make mistakes. But then it is so important to say sorry and ask for forgiveness. It is important to be able to reflect on choices you make. If you do that, you can be a good partner, because then you find balance. By Maren challenging me, I was able to make the most important choice in my life, to be with her. The mastery I felt then, meant that I eventually managed to love myself.
Music that gives hope?
Now he generously shares what he has received.
"For many years, I have been engaged in philanthropic work through my foundation," he says, referring to the One in a Million Foundation.
Here , the goal is to support local youth from Åsnes, Grue and Våler to follow their dreams. So far, he has awarded over a dozen scholarships. At the moment, he is building a hi-tec cultural school, a free offer for children, in his home village of Flisa.
Together with the Mads Zuccarello Foundation, he works to give all children and young people the opportunity to participate in sports and physical activity – and in this way reduce exclusion and "create strong and safe children, a more inclusive society and better integration".
Thus, Matoma should be in the right place here at the Oslo 2025 Homeless World Cup. As well as staring at the Opening Ceremony he is also collaborating with Scottish Turn The Tables – a social enterprise and charity that gives people affected by homelessness the opportunity to express themselves through DJing and creative expression.
"A lot of people ask me why I'm bothering to do this, because I could have retired a long time ago. But it's exactly love that keeps me going.”
It touches him when he wakes up in the morning and receives a message from someone who has had a bad day.
"But then they tell me that my music has helped give a spark of love. Maybe my music gives some hope in their everyday lives, in the way they need it.
«Hold on to hope, ‘cause sometimes hope is all you’ll have
Don’t let your mind go to dark places in the dark»
Sadie Rose Van sings on one of Matoma's songs.
"Is hope something you want to give the Oslo 2025 Homeless World Cup participants?"
"I think the players here have to find hope for themselves. But you can provide support and love that can lead to someone else feeling hopeful. The hope I have is that love will reach me, because love is the greatest force in the universe.
A cry for solidarity?
Action is needed, Matoma believes, and calls for activism and demonstrations. He has stood on the barricades and spoken out clearly against the school closures that have affected young people all over rural Norway.
"There is so much misery in the world today and so many greedy people who take the liberty of saying that they are good, but then they are the exact opposite. When you see that people with power, large chains, companies and government bodies are overflowing with money, while charities like this barely manage to make ends meet, then there is something beyond wrong with society. Then you have to show up! If you want a change, you need to be active. You can sit at home and whine and complain, but if you are not involved, nothing happens. A cup like this is perhaps a cry to show solidarity, because society needs it so badly.”
Written by Marit Dehli-Johannesen (Salvation Army), Photos by Donnie Nicholson