Wigan Athletic's 5 most expensive signings - Where are they now? | OneFootball

Despite spending plenty of time in the Premier League during the 21st century, Wigan Athletic perhaps haven't spent as lavishly as some of their rivals when they were in the top flight of English football.

The Latics have never brought a player in for an eight-figure fee unlike most Premier League clubs in their eight years, which makes it more astonishing that they were able to survive for so long.

What are Wigan's five most expensive signings doing now though in 2023? Let's take a little look and delve into their lives...

5 Ivan Ramis

In Wigan's latter days in the top flight, Spanish centre-back Ramis was acquired for £4 million in 2012 from Real Mallorca.

Ramis only played 49 times in the league for Wigan though in two-and-a-half seasons and eventually had his contract cancelled by mutual consent in 2015 when the club were in the Championship.

He headed back to Spain to play for Levante briefly and then spent the last five years of his career with Eibar before retiring in 2020 and it's unclear as to what he is doing nowadays.

4 Hugo Rodallega

Wigan shopped a lot in Central and South America a number of years ago, with one of their most successful imports being Rodallega when he was signed in January 2019 from Mexican outfit Necaxa.

Scoring 24 times in 112 Premier League games for Wigan, the Colombian moved on to Fulham in 2012 and then moved onto Turkey and Brazil before returning to his native country with Independiente Santa Fe in January.

At the age of 37, Rodallega has netted five times in 15 appearances in the top flight of Colombian football so far, showing that he's still got it at a certain level.

3 Jason Koumas

Having starred for West Brom in the Championship in 2006-07, Koumas was snapped up by Wigan for £5.3 million in 2007.

The midfielder failed to really make an impact in the Premier League though and after spending a season on loan at Cardiff in 2010-11, he left Wigan and remained a free agent for two years before returning to his first ever professional club Tranmere to see out his playing days.

Koumas disappeared off the radar after that and little is known about what he does now, but his 17-year-old son Louie is a forward for Liverpool's under-18's and recently signed a professional contract.

2 Emile Heskey

Heskey was in his theoretical peak years when he signed for Wigan in 2006 from Birmingham City for £5.5 million at the age of 28, and despite not being prolific for the Latics he showed his class at times.

His playing days ended in 2016 and in 2021 he took up the role of head of football development at Leicester City Women in a role he remains in at this current time.

1 Charles N'Zogbia

The club's record signing for £6 million, N'Zogbia was a mercurial yet inconsistent talent but he had undoubted quality which saw him capped twice for France.

After scoring 15 times in 83 appearances for the Latics, N'Zogbia departed for Aston Villa in 2011 - he spent five years there and when he departed in 2016 that would be the end of his football career at the age of just 30.

That was because a heart problem discovered when on the verge of a move to Nantes in his home country meant he stepped away from the game - he has kept a low profile since then with The Athletic unable to get in contact with him when they tried in 2020, meaning his currnet status in life remains a mystery.