It’s transfer season, and anticipation for a hectic summer is building.
Celtic and Rangers will compete for the title next season, but they may be competing before the ball has even kicked.
Both sides from the Old Firm have been linked with a move to Rabbi Matondo.
The Schalke player is apparently looking to return to the UK this summer, with a transfer to Glasgow on the cards.
The Guardian said that Celtic and Rangers were keeping an eye on Matondo, with sources in German site Waz stating that both teams were ‘very interested’ in him.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst is considering moves to bolster his Rangers squad, and Rabbi Matondo could be the answer!
Schalke, who won promotion to the Bundesliga in 2021-22, loaned the 10-time Welsh international to Cercle Brugge last season, but the Belgian club will not exercise their option to buy.
Instead, Gelsenkirchen have placed Matondo on the transfer list, which might pave the way for van Bronckhorst to bring him to Ibrox.
With only a year left on his contract, teams from England and France are rumoured to be vying for his signature, albeit no specific teams are named.
Matondo, like many young wingers, is a pretty raw player at the moment, with a long way to go to polish his game to the standard of the Scottish Premiership.
But he has talent coming out of his ears, and even if he’s a little hit and miss at first, he’ll ultimately find some consistency, and then he could start tearing the league apart team by team.
Matondo was born in Liverpool and had parents from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet he chose to play for Wales, where he grew up, despite representing England at schoolboy level.
He began his youth career at Cardiff City before joining Manchester City in 2016 for a reputed cost of £500,000.
Matondo failed to make an appearance for City and was sold to Schalke in January 2019 for an estimated £9 million.
In September 2019, he scored his first Bundesliga goal against RB Leipzig before joining Stoke City on loan in January 2021.
Matondo spent last season on loan at Cercle Brugge, where he scored ten goals in 27 games.
And now with the Hornets also interested in signing him, this transaction is even more important since Rangers cannot let them steal one of their summer objectives from under their nose!
Whatever the board and van Bronckhorst have to offer the Welshman should be put in front of him because, given enough time, he will become a magnificent player.
With Ryan Kent on one side and Alfredo Morelos in the middle, the lethal front three may be complete if the 21-year-old chooses Ibrox over Parkhead!
