Bundesliga promoted FC Schalke 04 must find a new buyer for Rabbi Matondo. His loan club Cercle Brugge is not exercising the option to buy the 21-year-old Welsh international.
The Belgian first division team confirmed this on Thursday evening. Accordingly, Matondo was “willing for a long time” to stay in Bruges.
Ultimately, however, no agreement was reached with the professional. “Rabbi is returning to FC Schalke 04,” said Cercle.
Bitter for the Royal Blues: In the event of a permanent move from Matondo to Belgium, the clammy club would have collected 3.5 million euros. In addition, one would have gotten the high earner from the payroll.
Rabbi Matondo too expensive for FC Schalke 04
Now Schalke have to find a new buyer for the winger, because Matondo is unaffordable for the club despite the return to the top flight.
In view of this predicament, however, the basis for negotiations with any interested parties is not very good.
However, Matondo has had a strong season in the Belgian Jupiler League. For Cercle, the youngster was involved in eleven goals (nine goals/two assists) in 26 league games. In the vote for “Youngster of the Year” in Belgium, Matondo took third place.
Only two goals in the FC Schalke 04 jersey
It is already clear that Matondo’s commitment to Schalke will become a big minus business. A whopping nine million euros was transferred to Manchester City during the Champions League in January 2019 for the supposed top talent.
The hope that Matondo would develop in a similar way to Jadon Sancho at archrival Borussia Dortmund was bitterly disappointed. He only scored twice in 32 competitive games in the royal blue jersey.
A loan to Stoke City in the second half of 2020/2021 was also a failure. Matondo only played eleven games (one goal) for the Potters across all competitions.