Haaland, Sterling, Sancho, Walker, Sane- Keith Jackson’s incredible take on imaginative speedster Rabbi Matondo

Keith Jackson has delivered a highly imaginative tribute to Rabbi Matondo after the Welshman signed on at Ibrox yesterday. Reading it you wouldn’t realise that between £8-9m has been knocked off his value since moving to Schalke in 2019.

The star man at the Daily Record rarely gets involved in the run of the mill reporting of new signings, preferring to share his Monday morning opinion pieces alongside breaking the big exclusives. 

The signing of Matondo seems to have changed that, on Monday morning Jackson introduced the club’s Imaginative Signing Policy, a day later he seems to have been given access to the new signing with some incredibly glowing references thrown in around quotes from the £2.5m speedster.  

Any doubts about the speed of the new boy can be put to rest, the narrative suggests that he possibly outsprint Oli Burke if the two players were put side-by-side on the track. 

In his introduction, Jackson explains to Daily Record readers: 

At the age of just 21, Rabbi Matondo is a young man in a hurry. So rapid that the Bundelisga’s biggest boffins believe he could give Erling Haaland a serious run for his money – the winger had already clocked up air miles at five different clubs in four different countries, before arriving in Glasgow yesterday morning for the next stage of his journey. 

A product of a Manchester City production line which has raked in almost £170m in sales of academy players over these last few years, Matondo checked in at Rangers to be handed Joe Aribo ’s old No.17 shirt – a week after the Nigerian’s £10m move to Southampton. And he’s already got one eye on using his first few months in Scotland as a springboard and fast-track towards this year’s World Cup Finals with Wales. Matondo, it seems, is not one for hanging around. 

But, shortly after putting pen to paper on a four year deal on Tuesday lunchtime, the speed merchant explained why he feels now is the time for him to start laying down some roots, after spending the last two years packing his bags between Germany and Belgium with a six month stop off in Stoke. 

NOTE: Aribo was sold for £6m, not £10m.

Later, Jackson adds some details, mainly about the pace of the new man at Ibrox: 

Matondo’s searing pace is clearly a major attraction. Those German statisticians clocked him motoring at around 22mph on two occasions in a Schalke shirt which is scorching stuff in any language. 

As an 18-year-old at City, after being head picked from Cardiff City’s youth team, he was already quicker over the ground than Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker and Leroy Sane. But he insists he can bring a whole lot more than just blistering running power to van Bronckhorst’s squad. 

In three weeks time Matondo will be able to showcase his incredible pace in a Champions League Third Round qualifier. 

He is incredibly fast but when he played for Schalke, game awareness & technical side needed work. Admittedly that was a long time ago now. Apparently fared better in Belgium. S04 weren’t planning with him though.

— Derek Rae (@RaeComm) July 11, 2022