 Towards the end of the conflict, he was imprisoned due to his political leanings but was released on the insistence of the Girondins de Bordeaux and was therefore able to emigrate to France shortly before the outbreak of World War II.In Bordeaux, Mateo played for the Girondins in a local league as the French Championship had been disbanded due to the war.He also met his wife, an Alsatian who had been evacuated to south-west France in 1939.