Rabbi Matondo is a player with a point to prove and he will have no better stage or opponent to do just that on Wednesday – live on talkSPORT.
The 18-year-old secured a move to Schalke 04 in a deal worth £11.3million at the end of January, having never played a match for Manchester City.
However, the pacy winger, who set a new record for a 20-metre sprint during end-of-season tests clocking a time of 2.62 seconds, could come back to haunt his former side when they visit Veltins-Arena in the Champions League.
Without a minute of first-team football under his belt prior to his switch, Matondo has started the last two matches for Schalke and is glad to have made the move.
“The lads are great, the manager has been good,” Matondo told bundesliga.com.
“Everyone has been good, the physios, the kit men, staff, everyone. They’ve been good to me.
“It has been easy to adapt away from home, but this is what I wanted. I was ready and willing to do anything to get settled in quick and just get underway. I got some good minutes today – hopefully I can just keep going and push on from that.”
Matondo is the latest youngster to have moved away from the Etihad, with Brahim Diaz leaving the Premier League champions for Real Madrid.
The Welshman will hope to follow in the footsteps of another former City teenager, Jadon Sancho, who is playing a starring role for Borussia Dortmund since joining in 2017 and has featured three times for England. He reportedly sent Matondo a text upon news of his move.
It read: “I know it’s gonna be hard. Make sure you just stay focused because it will be tough.”
The Bundesliga is proving to be the destination of choice for young British talent to get a chance and take their game on to the next level, with the likes of Reece Oxford (Augsburg) and Reiss Nelson (Hoffenheim) also plying their trade in Germany.
City will come up against another familiar face tomorrow; former defender Matija Nastasic, who departed back in 2015, having once been considered among the most promising defenders in Europe, before unfortunately, being hampered with a series of injuries.
The 25-year-old is now at the heart of Schalke’s back-line and heaped praise Pep Guardiola’s side.
“For me they have continually improved,” he said.
“The football they play is sometimes incredible. There’s barely a team that is as good as them.”