Matondo, Rabbi

Rabbi Matondo was born on September 9, 2000 in Liverpool , but as a child with his family moved to the capital of Wales, Cardiff ^[2] . He grew up in the not-so-prosperous area of ​​Cardiff Tremorf, where at the age of three or four years old he started playing football in local parks with his father and brothers, and then against older children ^[3] . Rabbi's father, Dada, was a soccer player and played for several clubs in his native Congo . The two Rabbi brothers, Cedric and Japhet, also play soccer at a youthful level. ^[3]

Youth Clubs

Matondo began his football career at the Cardiff City Academy, during which he began to be considered one of Wales' main football talents, his ball possession technique and his ability to pass blindly were noted ^[4] . In the summer of 2016, Matondo joined the Manchester City Youth Academy. For this transition, City paid Cardiff a small compensation paid in accordance with the High-Level Player Training Plan - an initiative created by the Premier League for the development of young football players, according to which any club with a first-class football academy, which included Manchester City ”, Could take for itself the country's most talented young players from academies of a lower category for a fixed compensation, the size of which, most likely, would be insignificant compared to the possible payments as a result of full nnogo transfer of the player in the future ^[4] . Cardiff, having an academy of the second category ^[4] , appealed this transition, and Matondo was forbidden to play for Manchester City until March 2017, when permission was obtained ^[5] . It is reported that between the clubs agreed to pay a transfer of $ 500,000 pounds ^[5] .

In the 2016/17 season, the footballer began playing in the Manchester City U18 team, the first Matondo match for the new club took place on April 29, 2017, when the player replaced the second half of the away game against West Ham in the Premier League up to 18 years ^[6] . The following season, Matondo also took part in the matches of the team under 19 in the UEFA Youth League , where City reached the semifinals, and the player himself scored 2 goals and an assist pass in 9 matches ^[7] . On August 15, 2017, the football player made his debut in the English Football League trophy match against Rotherham United , and in the next meeting of this tournament he scored a goal against Bradford City ^[8] . During the speed tests in training, Matondo was the fastest not only among the other players of the academy, but also among the players of the main team. Rabbi was ahead of such high-speed players of the main team as Rahim Sterling , Kyle Walker and Leroy Sane ^{[2] [3]} . During his time at the Manchester City Academy, Matondo became one of the leaders of the club’s youth ^[9] , in total he played 53 matches for teams of different ages and scored 19 goals in them ^[10] . The player did not play for the main team, but was regularly involved in training with the main team under the direction of Pep Guardiola ^[9] . In January 2019, the footballer refused to renew the ^{[11 ]} contract valid until 2020 ^[12] with Manchester City.

Schalke 04

On January 30, 2019, Matondo signed a contract for four and a half years with the German Bundesliga club Schalke 04 ^[9] , the amount of the player’s transfer amounted to 9 million euros according to one information ^[13] with an option to buy back for 50 million euros ^[14] , according to other data is 9.6 million pounds plus 2 million pounds in addition as bonuses for the player’s performance ^{[15] [16]} . In addition to Schalke, the player was interested in a number of other German clubs, including Bayern and Dortmund Borussia ^[17] , some clubs of the English Premier League ^[2] , and, probably, the Italian Milan ^[18] . The football player made his debut on February 2, 2019 in the home match of the 20th round of the German championship against Borussia from Monchengladbach , in which Schalke lost with the score 0: 2. Matondo came on as a substitute in the 75th minute, replacing Sebastian Rudi on the field ^[19] . For the first time in the starting lineup, the Welshman appeared on February 16, 2019 in a home match against Freiburg , the meeting ended in a goalless draw, and Matondo spent 89 minutes on the field ^[20] .

Matondo had the right to play internationally for the teams of England , Wales or Congo ^[9] . The player himself made a choice in favor of Wales ^[2] and in 2015 joined the youth team under 17 years old , for which he spent 9 matches in 2015 and 2016 ^[21] . The player received his first challenge to the Wales youth team in the fall of 2017 ^[22] , made his debut for the team by substituting in the qualification match for the European Youth Championship 2019 against Liechtenstein , which took place on October 5, 2017 and ended in a 3-1 victory for Wales ^[23] .

In November 2018, Matondo received the first call to the main team of Wales under the leadership of Ryan Giggs for a friendly match against Albania ^[24] . In this game, which ended with the defeat of Wales with a score of 0: 1, Rabbi entered the field in the 78th minute, replacing Sam Wokes ^[25] .

Rabbi Matondo is considered a rising star ^[2] , the strengths of the player are the highest speed and good technique ^[16] .

Club statistics

As of February 18, 2019

Team stats

As of February 18, 2019

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