Rangers winger Rabbi Matondo has finally gotten off the mark for Wales – and one Dragons legend reckons he’s just upstaged a Premier League counterpart in the process.
It’s been a long-time coming for Rabbi Matondo and the Wales national team, with the Rangers winger in and out of the squad due to a succession of injury problems in recent seasons.
Once regarded as amongst the brightest prospects in Welsh football, the 24-year-old had made 12 caps without a goal before finding the net v Kazakhstan.
Dan James gave Wales an early lead in the match before a controversial handball penalty drew the Kazakhs level in the first half.
Spurs left-back Ben Davies then restored the lead minutes after the restart before Matondo popped up in the 90th minute to add some security to a 3-1 World Cup Qualifying victory.
Finding space at the edge of the six-yard box, as we’ve seen him do before for Rangers, the Hannover 96 loanee finally opened his account for Wales with a low finish.
It’s a moment which has Wales legend Ashley Williams ‘buzzing’, the Ibrox winger doing precisely what one Tottenham Hotspur superstar couldn’t in the nation’s frontline.
Rabbi Matondo outshines £47.5m Spurs star
Ashley Williams is well familiar with Rabbi Matondo having played with the Wales attacker during his formative years with the country.
The former Swansea City and Everton defender, who made 86 caps for Wales, reckons there won’t be a single member of the Wales squad who isn’t delighted to see the winger get off the mark.
But whilst analysing the Matondo strike, Williams reckons the Rangers attacker did something which Spurs forward Brennan Johnson ‘didn’t do’ by getting into the ‘correct position’ to finish v Kazakhstan.
Johnson – who cost Spurs £47.5m from Nottingham Forest in 2023 (Sky Sports) – had been hooked off around the hour mark for Mark Harris.
Matondo only came off the bench for the final four minutes of the game, with a recalled Tom Lawrence not handed an opportunity by Craig Bellamy to make his first cap in four years.
“Do you know what? There won’t be a person involved with Wales that isn’t over the moon to see him score today,” Williams told BBC Sport Wales.
”Sorba (Thomas) does excellently, gets to the byline, does what all good wingers should do, cuts it back.
“Just like we were saying maybe Brennan (Johnson) didn’t do, Rabbi gets in the correct position.”
Williams also expanded on Matondo the person, claiming the former Manchester City and Schalke winger has had a tough time in recent seasons.
A popular figure amongst the Wales squad, Williams insists everyone involved with the national team set-up will be delighted to see the winger get his first goal for the country.
”He’s had such a tough time Rabbi Matondo over the years,” said Williams. “I played with him and everybody loves him. He’s such a great lad to have around the camp.
”He’s just so fun. He’s not serious all the time. He brings a lot of energy to the camp. He’s always joking, sometimes a little bit too much it might get him in trouble.
”But he’s such a good person to have around that when he popped up and he scored that goal you can see the team are just so happy to have him in there.”
Rabbi Matondo Rangers exit deal up in the air
Rangers, much like Wales, have not seen enough of this from Rabbi Matondo over the years with the winger’s Ibrox future very much up in the air.
Matondo moved to Schalke 04 from the Man City academy in an £9.6m deal (BBC Sport) back in 2019 and Rangers thought they could harness that potential when they swooped in £3m deal back in 2022.
But injuries and a lack of consistency have hurt Matondo at Ibrox, with the player’s high wages and low returns draining the much-discussed Ibrox wage bill.
In January, Rangers farmed Matondo out to Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga 2 with the Germans possessing an option to make the deal permanent in the summer.
The winger has impressed in Germany to date, even scoring on his debut in a thrilling 2-2 draw with league leaders HSV.
Reports have suggested that Hannover will pay Rangers £1m for Matondo but only if certain conditions are met.
The most pertinent of which is Hannover’s promotion back to the Bundesliga, with a tight German second flight race set to go to the wire this season.
Hannover are currently 6th (42 points) with eight games to go, five points off an automatic promotion place and 2nd place Koln (47 points) and six points off league leaders Hamburg SV (48 points).
Remarkably only eight points separate first place to 9th place in the Bundesliga 2 table, with only three promotion slots up for grabs.
Whilst the top two are automatically promoted, the team who finishes third – currently Paderborn (45 points) – will play the side who finishes 16th in the Bundesliga in a two-legged playoff – currently VfL Bochum.
There’s no cause for concern though – club captain Ron Robert-Zieler insists Hannover will get their rewards in the end.
Back in January Rangers fans might’ve been willing Hannover 96 to promotion in order to get a deal for Matondo over the line.
But with US investment and a new manager set to come into Rangers, perhaps Matondo might have a future at Ibrox after all.
