Matties Volckaert

Matties Volckaert is a Ghent product through and through. He started out at KFC Merelbeke before joining the KAA Gent academy in 2010, and after a spell away he returned to the club's youth setup, working his way up from the under-14s. His path to the first team ran through Racing Club Gent, the feeder side later folded into the KAA Gent structure, where he made his senior debut in 2020 and went on to make more than ninety appearances, scoring four goals.

When Racing Gent's senior side was absorbed into KAA Gent, Volckaert moved into Jong KAA Gent for the 2024–2025 season. He was a regular there, playing 21 matches and scoring once as the reserve team won the Eerste Nationale title. That performance earned him a first professional contract with the main KAA Gent squad, signed in May 2025, and he made his senior professional debut for the club on 8 August 2025.

Every step of his career has come through free moves or internal promotion within Ghent's own football pyramid, without a transfer fee ever changing hands. At 189 cm, the defender has built his route to the first team almost entirely inside one club's structure, from the youth ranks through the reserves and up to the senior side he now represents.