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Tholo Matuludi

South Africa · the desk

Defence, South Africa

Sourced facts, dated and on the record. Squad membership, and his club when a source names one. Nothing invented; we don’t make players up.

At a glance

  • age

    26

    sourced with the squad

  • position

    Defence

    South Africa

  • our board

    #1280

    of 1424 rated players

  • folded so far

    2047′

    24 appearances

  • transfer market value (EUR millions), as a rank among peers

    1.20

    69th percentile of peers

Sourced

squad
South Africa · Defencefootball-data.org · 2026-06-29

Sourced context, nothing more. It never touches a call.

Our rating · the working

the board →

1549 ±45

his quality rating: club, age and measured output. The board orders by this plus his World Cup form, less a discount for how much we can measure him.

How the number is builtopenclose

1553 full roster Elo (+4 from national-team results)

the ± is how settled the number is, more minutes, tighter band

Tier 2, lineups + results, how rich the evidence is, not just how much

at or near his peak, no projected upside from age

Where he starts (his team’s strength, we refuse to invent what we haven’t measured) plus two fixed nudges make the quality rating above; the last line is what national-team results have added since, taking it to his full roster Elo.

starts at South Africa's strengththe fair club-over-national anchor, every player's starting point
1540
age curve at 26 (defences' curve)the position's measured peak, no discount either way
+0
transfer market value, a sourced market-consensus quality prior (the stronger reading for him here)his percentile among minutes-qualified peers, from club seasons
+9
quality rating · club, age + measured output
1549
form: national-team results, 24 appearances2047 minutes, weighted by margin, surprise and his match stats, but shared across the XI
+4
full roster Elo · with results
1553

Where the +9 skill term comes from

Not a reputation, a measurement. We score every shot in the data ourselves and rank him among minutes-qualified peers; a fixed arithmetic turns that rank into points.

measured
1.20 transfer market value (EUR millions), as a rank among peers
his rank
69th percentile of qualified peers
scored from
the CC0 Transfermarkt community mirror; a market-consensus quality prior, taken at a capped weight where it reads a player higher than our (fixed, partial) shot/event data can
the arithmetic
46 pts/σ × z(69.0th) = 46 × 0.50 × 0.4 (position weight) = +9

A forward-only shadow signal, as of 2026-05-29. The skill term comes from our own xG models over the open archive; the rest is earned, recorded per appearance, auditable, never back-filled. It never moves a live call.

The notebook

The lines a beat writer keeps, except every one of ours is read off the ledger above, auditable to the night. Nothing invented.

  • standing

    #1280 of 1424 rated players on our board.

  • workload

    He barely leaves the pitch: 85′ a night across 24 folded appearances.

What he’d cost · our estimate

We don’t price him yet. Our fee model leans on the level he plays at, and no trusted source has given us his club’s strength. We’d rather show nothing than a number we don’t trust.

In our coverage · South Africa’s record

  • v Canada0–1Called it
  • v South Korea1–0Missed it
  • at Czech Republic1–1Missed it
  • at Mexico2–0Called it

The newsroom’s calls on South Africa. Team-level, never dressed up as a player stat.

Squad · sourced