Mathis Henno is making a famous Volleyball name his own

For Mathis Henno, Volleyball came before he was old enough to understand what the sport really meant to his family.

His earliest memories are not of medals, national teams or packed arenas. They are of being four years old in Italy, waiting until his father’s matches were over, then taking a ball with his brother and playing with it themselves.

“I think my first memory about Volleyball was when I took some balls after the matches of my father, when he used to play in Italy,” Henno recalls. “I was like four years old. I took the ball with my brother, and we played with it.”

Only later did he begin to understand that the player he was watching was not simply his father, but one of the most outstanding liberos of his generation.

There was one moment in particular when that became clear.

“The big memory was when they won the Italian Championship, when he was with Lube Civitanova,” Henno says. “It was an amazing souvenir for my dad, and also for me. I was like, ‘Okay, this is a big career my father has.’”

Growing up with the Henno surname meant that Volleyball was never going to be entirely anonymous.

Before Mathis had truly established himself as a player, people already knew where he came from. And, inevitably, they looked for pieces of Hubert in his game.

“Of course, people already had ideas about my Volleyball because I had this family name,” he says. “When I was young, people would say, ‘He is the son of Hubert Henno, so he is good in reception,’ because my dad was good in reception!”

He laughs as he tells it.

There is affection rather than frustration in the memory. Even now, when people remind him whose son he is, Henno does not see it as something he needs to escape.

“I’m really happy about it because it means people don’t forget my dad.”

Still, there is a difference between carrying a name and creating one.

And Henno has started to notice that difference in small moments.

“Sometimes I know I’m creating my own name when people recognise me in the street, and they say, ‘Oh, it’s Mathis Henno,’” he says.

“And sometimes when I’m with old players or older people, they don’t say, ‘Oh, you are the son of Hubert Henno.’ They say, ‘You are Mathis Henno, the Volleyball player.’ That reminds me that I’m creating my own name.”

A different position, a different path

The distinction between father and son can also be seen immediately on court.

Hubert made his career as a libero. Mathis chose the outside-hitter position almost from the beginning.

It was not, he insists, an act of rebellion. He simply wanted to do the things a libero could not.

“Since I was young, I was an outside hitter because I love to spike, I love to serve,” he says. “I think I have the physique for this position.”

Then comes another smile.

“Maybe my dad was a little bit too short to play outside hitter!”

And there was another, more straightforward reason.

“When I was young, I didn’t like to play libero because you don’t spike, you don’t do anything!” he jokes. “So I preferred to play outside hitter.”

Different roles, then. Different paths.

But never a rejection of what came before.

“Of course, I don’t forget the career of my dad.”

That balance perhaps explains Henno’s relationship with his family name better than anything else. He does not want to run away from it. He simply wants to make sure there is room beside it for his own story.

The jersey he always imagined

That story has now brought him to CEV Enel EuroVolley 2026 Men with France.

Unlike some childhood dreams that only become clear in hindsight, Henno says this one was always there.

“Of course, I already pictured myself wearing the French jersey because it was my objective to play with the national team,” he says.

Now that objective has become something tangible.

“Now I am at EuroVolley to represent the French national team at the highest level. It’s a lot of emotions because I know a lot of people are watching our performances.”

The feeling, however, is not simply about reaching the stage.

It is about what comes next.

“I’m really glad to represent this country, and I will give everything for this jersey.”

Perhaps that is where the story of Mathis Henno has changed most.

As a child, he stood on the edge of the court after his father’s matches, picked up a ball and started playing.

Now he is the one wearing the national-team jersey.

The one being watched.

And, increasingly, the one being recognised.

If he could speak to that four-year-old boy now, Henno says the message would be simple.

“I would say: never doubt yourself, always believe in your dreams and keep pushing,” he says.

“Be focused on your personal objectives, because it is starting to become the truth, the reality.”

Then, almost as if reminding himself not to rush through the moment he once imagined:

“Just enjoy life, and stay focused on your objectives.”

For years, the Henno name told people where Mathis came from.

Now, little by little, Mathis Henno is showing them where it can go next.

After completion of the pool phase in Cluj-Napoca, Mathis Henno and Team France now move to Sofia to play Portugal in the eighth finals.