EARLY SEPTEMBER: TO BE OR NOT TO BE-AT SCHOOL

4th September 2018
I'm sure we can all remember that first day back at school, after the long summer holiday. On that day in September 2018, Luke Matheson made the trip from home to Spotland, where his local football club Rochdale, were playing Bury in a Checkatrade Trophy match. He was a "Dale" fan and actually on the day, he was part of the Rochdale squad and although he did not expect to be involved, after 13 minutes he came on as  sub, to become Rochdale's youngest-ever player in a competitive match, aged just 15 years 336 days. He made 31 apps.

Luke helped Rochdale to a 2-1 victory.....and was named man of the match.  

He had another exciting day a little over a year later, not long after  the publication of his GCSE results when he found out he had passed 10 subjects. On that summer, day he scored his first senior goal in another local derby cup-tie, this one was a Carabao League Cup match v Manchester United, with a 58,313 Old Trafford crowd watching him "craft" his goal. On the next day he was back at school, down to earth - studying history, sociology and psychology A levels. 

On 19 January 2019, Matheson made his EFL debut in a 1–1 League One draw at home to Fleetwood Town as a half-time substitute. On 25 September 2019, at the age of just 16, he scored the equaliser in a 1–1 draw against Manchester United in the EFL Cup third round at Old Trafford, which Dale eventually lost 5–3 on penalties. On 31 October, he signed a three-year professional contract with the club, having turned 17 earlier in the month.

Matheson scored his first league goal on 11 January 2020, opening a 2–0 home win over Bolton Wanderers,

On 31 January 2020, Matheson signed for Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers for £1 million, before re-joining Rochdale on loan for the remainder of the season.  

On 1 February 2021, Matheson joined EFL Club side, Ipswich Town on loan until the end of the season. He made his first appearance starting in a 2-0 win against Blackpool.  He made 2 appearances for Ipswich before returning to Wolves at the end of his loan spell. On August 21st, he signed for Hamilton Academicals in the Scottish League, on a season loan from Wolves.

In February 2019, Matheson made his international debut for the England U17 against France. On 11th October 2019, he made his England U18 debut during a 5–2 win away to Poland and made 5 apps for that age group.