He won 2 England caps, playing in defence as a 5'5" small for a half back. His first international cap came firstly in March 1895, when he scored against Ireland at the Cricket Ground, Derby, in a 9-0 win in front of 8,000. His other cap came against Scotland at Villa Park in April 1899 winning 2-1, watched by 22,000. Rabbi had his success around the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
Rabbi's first club was Ecclesfield near Sheffield, then Rotherham Swifts and The Blades for nearly 200 games. Originally a centre-forward, he was coverted to the half backs. He scored 8 times. A transfer to Liverpool for £200 took place in 1898, where he stayed for 3 years playing 68 times (a time when Liverpool wore blue and white- below), then Preston NE where he suffered a broken leg in 1903 and brought an end to his career, whilst he was living in Paradise Street, of all places.
With Sheffield United, he helped win promotion from the Second Division, as runners-up to Small Heath and in 1897-8 he helped United win the Championship having been runners-up the season before. He was earning 2 guineas a week.
The fame and "fortune" may have got to him, as he was involved in some wayward activities, including a suggestion of "throwing a game" v Sunderland, when he scored 2 own goals. Nothing was proved, though there was also an extra-marital affair, which ruined his career at a club with good "Methodist Principles".
"The Evergreen in the Red and White" is a biography written by Stephen Kay, an author of several football books. The book vividly describes the lifestyle of Sheffield at the time, bread and dripping sandwiches for "snap", belching chimneys, the "Lane-ites" and the "Grove-ites" locking horns, where the Romanis came across the "Gorgio" non-Romanis in the industrial city.
In retirement by all accounts he ran a fruit and veg stall, whilst one of his daughters married into wealth.
He died aged 68 in Preston.
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