Rabbi Matondo

Rabbi Matondo (born 9 September 2000) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a winger for German club Schalke 04 and the Wales national football team.

Rabbi Matondo
Matondo with Schalke 04 in 2019
Personal information
Full name Rabbi Matondo[1]
Date of birth (2000-09-09) 9 September 2000
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Playing position(s) Winger
Club information
Current team
 Schalke 04
Number 14
Youth career
0000–2016 Cardiff City
2016–2019 Manchester City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2019– Schalke 04 27 (2)
2019– Schalke 04 II 2 (0)
National team‡
2015–2016 Wales U17 9 (0)
2017– Wales U21 6 (0)
2018– Wales 4 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 June 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16 November 2019

Early life

Matondo was born in Liverpool, England but moved to south-east Wales as a child.[3] He grew up in the Tremorfa area of Cardiff where he first played football in local parks with his father and brothers.[4] His father Dada played football in his native DR Congo. Two of his brothers, Cedrick and Japhet, also play football at youth level.[4]

As a teenager he attended Llanishen High School.[4]

Club career

Early career

Matondo began his career as a youth player with Cardiff City. In 2016, he moved to Premier League side Manchester City for a small compensation fee under the Elite Player Performance Plan, an initiative created by the Premier League regarding movement of youth players.[3] Cardiff appealed against the move and Matondo was blocked from playing for Manchester City until March 2017 when the appeal was denied. However, a fee of £500,000 was reported to have been agreed.[5]

He made his debut for the Manchester City U21 side in the EFL Trophy on 15 August 2017 against Rotherham United,[6] scoring his first goal in the side's following match, a 2–1 defeat to Bradford City.[7] He added two more goals in the next edition of the tournament: the game's only away to Tranmere Rovers in the final group game,[8] and one more in a 3–3 draw at Barnsley in the second round, as well as netting in the subsequent penalty shootout win.[9]

Schalke 04

On 30 January 2019, Matondo signed for Bundesliga club Schalke 04 for a reported fee of up to £11 million on a four-and-a-half-year deal.[10][11] He made his professional league debut three days later in a 2–0 home loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach, as a 75th-minute substitute for Sebastian Rudy; on 16 February he was given a start in a goalless home draw with SC Freiburg.[12] On 28 September 2019, he scored his first goal for Schalke in a 3–1 away victory over RB Leipzig.[13] Matondo's form has been very impressive for Schalke during the 2019/20 season, this has led to interest in Matondo from the biggest clubs in the world. Spanish giants Real Madrid and the famous English club Manchester United have both displayed serious interest in buying Matondo.[14] Matondo has a €60 million buyout clause in his contract at Schalke, which is further evidence of how highly rated he is.

International career

Matondo was eligible to represent DR Congo, England or Wales at international level.[4] He represented England at under-15 level before switching allegiance to Wales at under-17 level.[5] He received his first call up to the Wales under-21 squad in September 2017,[15] making his debut for the side in a 3–1 victory over Liechtenstein.[16] After appearing in four qualifying matches as a substitute,[16] he made his first start for the under-21 side in a 1–1 draw with Georgia in the second of two friendlies against the nation in June 2018.[17][18]

In November 2018, Matondo received his first call up for the senior Welsh squad for a friendly against Albania.[19] He made his international debut during the match on 20 November as a 78th-minute substitute in place of Sam Vokes as Wales lost 1–0 in Elbasan.[20]

In May 2019, after travelling back to England from a Welsh national team training camp in Portugal, Matondo was escorted from the plane by police after "behaving disruptively".[21] Despite only being 19, Matondo is now a regular in the Welsh national team.

Career statistics

Club
As of match played on 27 June 2020.[22][2]
Club Season League Cup Europe Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Manchester City U212017–18PDL ———2[lower-alpha 1]121
2018–19PDL ———4[lower-alpha 1]242
Total ———6363
Schalke 042018–19Bundesliga 701000—80
2019–20Bundesliga 20210——202
Total 2722000—292
Career total 272200063355
  1. Appearances in EFL Trophy

International
As of match played on 16 November 2019.[2]
Wales
YearAppsGoals
201810
201930
Total40
gollark: Yep!
gollark: Over here everyone is required to go to school. Apparently they can't do online school a few days a week because government says no.
gollark: UK.
gollark: Well, in my country not really.
gollark: Classrooms and such are often quite densely packed. Also corridors.

References
  1. "2018/19 Premier League squads confirmed". Premier League. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  2. "Rabbi Matondo". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  3. Abbandonato, Paul (23 September 2016). "Cardiff City have one of Wales' brightest young talents snatched away from them by Manchester City". WalesOnline. Media Wales. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  4. Coleman, Tom (9 October 2018). "Manchester City's Rabbi Matondo: The Cardiff kid who's grown up to be the fastest player at one of the world's biggest clubs". WalesOnline. Media Wales. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  5. Vittles, Jack (13 March 2017). "Manchester City starlet Rabbi Matondo cleared to play after being snatched away from Cardiff City". WalesOnline. Media Wales. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  6. Edwards, John (15 August 2017). "Rotherham United 1–1 City". Manchester City F.C. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  7. Edwards, John (24 October 2017). "Bradford City 2–1 City". Manchester City F.C. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  8. Garnett, Richard (31 October 2018). "Tranmere knocked out of the Checkatrade Trophy by Manchester City U21s". Wirral Globe. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  9. "Reds out of trophy after shoot-out loss to City kids". Barnsley Chronicle. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  10. "Rabbi Matondo transfer: Manchester City starlet completes £11million Schalke switch". Manchester Evening News. 30 January 2019.
  11. "Rabbi Matondo: Schalke sign Manchester City and Wales winger". BBC Sport. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  12. "Former Manchester City youth player Rabbi Matondo: "It's been easy to adapt at Schalke"". Bundesliga. 16 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  13. "Schalke's Rabbi Matondo: "I think we can keep this going now"". Bundesliga. 29 September 2019.
  14. {{https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/man-utd-matondo-news-latest-18303609}}
  15. "Wales add Cian Harries and Rabbi Matondo". BBC Sport. 28 September 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  16. Rabbi Matondo at Soccerway. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  17. "Georgia U21 1–1 Wales U21". sofascore.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  18. "U21 Squad Announced For Georgia Double Header". Football Association of Wales. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  19. Davies, Matthew (18 November 2018). "Wales add Manchester City's Rabbi Matondo to squad for Albania friendly and fans are loving it". WalesOnline. Media Wales. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  20. "Albania 1–0 Wales". BBC Sport. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  21. "Rabbi Matondo: Police escort 'disruptive' Wales winger from flight". BBC Sport. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  22. Rabbi Matondo at Soccerbase
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