Cardiff City product Rabbi Matondo needs to find a home and

Matondo 'needs to find a home' after meteoric rise


Cardiff City product Rabbi Matondo needs to find a home and get his club career "back on track", Wales Under-21s boss Paul Bodin has said.

Matondo appeared to have gone from strength to strength after leaving Cardiff at the age of 16 to sign for Premier League juggernauts Manchester City.

He then moved on to Schalke and looked set to realise his potential. But after being left out of Rob Page's squad for this international break and telling Bodin he wasn't ready for international football just yet, the 21-year-old appears to be at an impasse in his career.

Bodin said Matondo, who is now playing for Belgian club Cercle Brugge on loan, is an "eye-catching" talent who needs "to find a home".

"He perhaps hasn't been nurtured as much as he should have [been]," Bodin added. "He jumped to a high level of expectation and it's not always easy to deal with.

"He has to show the manager at Cercle Brugge that he is ready to start every game.

"When you think where he has come from - Cardiff City, big move to Manchester City, he did really well at Manchester City as a junior player. Then a tremendous move to Schalke and you think the world's going to take off.

"Unfortunately it hasn't quite done that for Rabbi yet. It's a case of him establishing himself and playing games. Hopefully that will happen very soon."

Matondo, who spent a period on loan at Stoke City last year, needs to get his career stabilised in order to kick on, according to Bodin.

"Rabbi is a talented boy and he is a young lad," he added.

"Players with pace in the modern game are eye-catching and difficult to defend against. Rabbi comes into that bracket.

"So hopefully he can get his club career on track and if he is playing regularly and producing goals and assists, I am sure Rob will be looking at him for the next campaign."

To me he is over rated and i never understood how Man cIty managed to get £11 million for him. I remember watching the under 21 a few years ago thinking he would rip the opposition apart given the hype surrounding him -but he was poor. Admitedly he was only 18 but it was Lichtenstein.Dan James who i had never heard of at the time stood out. We have plenty better, Brendon Johnson being the best prospect.

He would have been better off staying at cardiff city and working his way up through the ranks and playing championship football rather than premier league u23 and bundesliga. Just look at dan james.
He might as well come home to cardiff city now and play here.