Norwich City and Middlesbrough helped Wigan Athletic turn a quick profit: View | OneFootball

Former Middlesbrough winger Yanic Wildschut arrived at the Riverside in September 2014 from Dutch Eredivisie outfit SC Herenveen for a fee of £600k.

Back in 2013, Wildschut made five appearances for the Netherlands under-21s, so Boro may have had high hopes for the then 22-year-old signed by Aitor Karanka.

However, he was not a success on Teesside, and scored just two goals in 11 Championship appearances in 2014/15, and by October 2015, the wideman joined League One Wigan Athletic on loan.

Wildschut helped the Latics claim League One glory

During his initial three-month loan spell at the DW Stadium, Wildschut scored four goals in 17 appearances across all competitions, and his pace and trickery convinced Gary Caldwell to sign the ace on a permanent deal.

In January 2016, Wigan bought Wildschut for a fee of £1m, and he proved his worth by scoring five goals and providing seven assists in League One, helping the Greater Manchester outfit lift the 2016 third tier title.

The former Dutch youth international was subsequently afforded another opportunity at Championship level following his promotion with the Latics and, despite the club's struggles, he excelled in the second tier.

In October 2016, the Latics sacked Caldwell as the club sat 23rd in the table, but Wildschut was seemingly unfazed by his club's struggles as he scored four goals and created two assists in 25 Championship appearances during the first half of the 2016/17 season, before joining Norwich City in 2017.

The Latics made a handsome profit on Wildschut

The Canaries bought the attacker for a reported £7m, so the Latics made a tidy profit of £6m on Wildschut, who had helped the club to League One glory, just one year after they sold him.

Obviously, had Boro not sold the wideman at a relatively low price quite early, the Latics would not have been able to make such a profit. Both the North East outfit and the Canaries contributed to helping the Latics out financially, despite the fact they certainly lost a key asset on the field when Wildschut left.

The Latics were relegated back to the third tier at the end of the 2016/17 season, while the Canaries did not get the same performances from the former Boro man, who scored just one Championship goal for the Norfolk side during the back end of that campaign.

Unfortunately for Wildschut and the Canaries, he would go on to score just one goal in 16 second tier outings during the opening half of the following season, before joining Cardiff City on loan in January 2018.

The former Latics star also failed to make an impact in the Welsh capital, as one assist in 10 appearances for the Bluebirds was his solitary goal contribution.

Uninspired by his spell in South Wales, Norwich sent Wildschut on loan once more, and he joined Latics' bitter rivals Bolton Wanderers ahead of the 2018/19 campaign.

Once again, the winger would not meet the sort of form he had displayed at the DW Stadium, scoring just two goals in 16 Championship appearances for Wanderers.

He subsequently joined Israeli side Maccabi Haifa in 2019, where he spent two seasons, before signing for CSKA Sofia in 2021, where he made 45 appearances across all competitions.

During his season-long spell in Bulgaria, Wildschut scored just one goal, but he reached a couple of career milestones, as he made eleven appearances in the Europa Conference League, and his debut at senior international level for Suriname.

He returned to the Football League in the summer of 2022, and scored one goal in League One for Oxford United during the 2022/23 campaign, before joining Exeter City the next summer, where he would reunite with his former Latics boss Caldwell.

It's been a busy few years for a player that Wigan, undoubtedly, got the best out of on the pitch and, certainly, from a financial point of view.