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.
Matondo with Schalke 04 in 2019 | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Rabbi Matondo[1] | ||
Date of birth | 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 | |||
–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]
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,[14] making his debut for the side in a 3–1 victory over Liechtenstein.[15] After appearing in four qualifying matches as a substitute,[15] 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.[16][17]
In November 2018, Matondo received his first call up for the senior Welsh squad for a friendly against Albania.[18] 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.[19]
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".[20]
Career statistics
Club
Club | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Manchester City U21 | 2017–18 | PDL | — | — | — | 2[lower-alpha 1] | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
2018–19 | PDL | — | — | — | 4[lower-alpha 1] | 2 | 4 | 2 | ||||
Total | — | — | — | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | |||||
Schalke 04 | 2018–19 | Bundesliga | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 8 | 0 | |
2019–20 | Bundesliga | 19 | 2 | 1 | 0 | — | — | 20 | 2 | |||
Total | 27 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 29 | 2 | |||
Career total | 27 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 35 | 5 |
- Appearances in EFL Trophy
References
- "2018/19 Premier League squads confirmed". Premier League. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- "Rabbi Matondo". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Edwards, John (15 August 2017). "Rotherham United 1–1 City". Manchester City F.C. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- Edwards, John (24 October 2017). "Bradford City 2–1 City". Manchester City F.C. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- Garnett, Richard (31 October 2018). "Tranmere knocked out of the Checkatrade Trophy by Manchester City U21s". Wirral Globe. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- "Reds out of trophy after shoot-out loss to City kids". Barnsley Chronicle. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- "Rabbi Matondo transfer: Manchester City starlet completes £11million Schalke switch". Manchester Evening News. 30 January 2019.
- "Rabbi Matondo: Schalke sign Manchester City and Wales winger". BBC Sport. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
- "Former Manchester City youth player Rabbi Matondo: "It's been easy to adapt at Schalke"". Bundesliga. 16 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- "Schalke's Rabbi Matondo: "I think we can keep this going now"". Bundesliga. 29 September 2019.
- "Wales add Cian Harries and Rabbi Matondo". BBC Sport. 28 September 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- Rabbi Matondo at Soccerway. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- "Georgia U21 1–1 Wales U21". sofascore.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- "U21 Squad Announced For Georgia Double Header". Football Association of Wales. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- 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.
- "Albania 1–0 Wales". BBC Sport. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- "Rabbi Matondo: Police escort 'disruptive' Wales winger from flight". BBC Sport. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
- Rabbi Matondo at Soccerbase