Rabbi Matondo once came to FC Schalke 04 in the winter as a man worth millions and then left as a flop. Do you still know?
It wasn’t too long ago that FC Schalke 04 was still able to spend millions on player transfers. In the following year of the 2017/18 championship runner-up season, the club from Gelsenkirchen found itself in twelfth place after 19 match days. The gap to the European Cup places was six points – a gap that would definitely not be the same at the end of the season. The goal was clear: after such a successful year, it should at least be the Europa League.
Reinforcements were due to arrive on January 30. Christian Heidel, the club’s sporting director, presented a talented 18-year-old Welshman from Manchester City’s U23s for nine million euros. Rabbi Matondo, a nimble, technically gifted winger, was a young player with a lot of development potential and was expected to add to the width of the squad and, if possible, help out in the league with his enormous speed. Schalke were probably hoping for a similarly steep development as Jadon Sancho from rivals Dortmund.
Even Pep Guardiola raved about the young attacker before the transfer rumors: “He’s a talent. An incredibly quick winger.”
Despite Guardiola’s seal of approval, Schalke supporters had to bury their hopes early on that Matondo would become one of the greats. The Welshman’s difficulties in adapting to professional soccer were clear to see. In his first season in Germany’s top flight, he made seven brief appearances (184 minutes in total). In the DFB Cup, he played over 45 minutes in the 4:1 round of 16 win against Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Schalke loans out Rabbi Matondo twice
Matondo also played very little in the following years. In the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, he made a total of 23 Bundesliga appearances in which he scored just two goals. He did not provide any assists. A disappointing haul for a winger.
Schalke therefore considered the option of loaning out the Welshman to further his development in a different environment. In 2021, he moved to Stoke City in the English second division for the second half of the season. He then moved to Cercle Brugge in Belgium in the summer of 2021 and played a strong season there.
Schalke makes a loss with Rabbi Matondo
Nevertheless, the now 21-year-old no longer had a future at Schalke. “Rabbi played a very good season in Belgium. Nevertheless, we openly communicated with him that we could not plan him for the new season from an economic point of view. He handled it in a highly professional manner,” explained S04 sporting director Rouven Schröder.
On July 12, 2022, his permanent departure was perfect: Matondo went to the Scottish record champions, Glasgow Rangers. Matondo thus flushed three million euros into the squires’ coffers – a bitter loss in view of the transfer fee originally paid. On top of this, Matondo’s salary is certainly not insignificant, making him one of the most expensive misunderstandings in Schalke’s winter transfer history