There are few, if any, Norwich City players that will go down as bigger flops at the club than Dutch striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel, and Canaries fans must wonder why it went so badly for him in English football compared to other leagues.
The year was 2013, and the Canaries were heading into their third successive Premier League season under Chris Hughton’s guidance after a meteoric rise from being League One champions in 2010.
Hughton had already moved to bolster his squad for the 2013/14 season in March, with their top-flight status secured for another year, as then-24-year-old van Wolfswinkel joined for a reported club-record £8.5 million fee on a four-year contract from Portuguese giants Sporting CP, with the deal set to come into effect after the season ended.
van Wolfswinkel’s time at the club was nothing short of a disaster, considering the fee paid and his subsequent lack of goals in his three years in East Anglia, which will come as a surprise to Canaries’ fans given his impressive goalscoring exploits at most other teams that he has played for throughout his career.
van Wolfswinkel never got to grips with the Premier League
Ricky van Wolfswinkel
It seemed as if the Canaries had got themselves a goalscorer to take them to the next level in the Premier League after the Dutchman’s debut, as he expertly headed home a sliced cross to make it 2-2 and earn his new side a point late on in the season’s curtain raiser against Everton, but that was as good as it got in terms of his time at Norwich.
A barren run in front of goal followed for van Wolfswinkel, and the Dutch striker later recalled a conversation he had with boss Hughton just a few months into his Carrow Road spell with City languishing around the relegation zone.
“There was a moment, around November or December, when he called me in the office and said ‘listen Ricky, I know what we talked about before and the football I wanted to bring in, but honestly it’s not working out really, it’s getting difficult,” he told The Sun in 2018.
“‘At this time, we need points, we need to win games so we are going to play a little more direct’.”
“And therefore he was honest and I can totally accept it. What else could I say?
“I told him he knew I would always work 100 per cent, always do it for the team and I can understand the reason.”
van Wolfswinkel continued to start the majority of league games in the second-half of the campaign, but was unable to find the net again and finished his debut season with one goal and one assist in 25 Premier League outings.
Norwich were relegated back to the Championship on the final day of the season, despite Hughton being sacked and replaced by Neil Adams in April, and that was pretty much it for the Dutchman in East Anglia.
He departed on loan to St Etienne that summer, and had a decent spell in France before he returned to Norwich in 2015, and netted his second, and final, goal in his last game for the club in a 2-1 EFL Cup victory over Rotherham United.
Spain was his next destination as he moved on loan to Real Betis for the season, and he then left Norwich for good in 2016 as he returned to boyhood club Vitesse to bring a hugely disappointing three years to an end.
Norwich stint is an anomaly in van Wolfswinkel’s prolific career
ricky van wolfswinkel basel
It is clear to see that van Wolfswinkel’s time at Norwich did not work out for either him or the club, but it may have simply been a case of him not adapting to the Premier League, or even Hughton’s play-style as aforementioned, because he has done well at every other permanent club in his career to date.
He burst onto the scene at Vitesse as a highly-rated, award-winning youngster, and bagged eight times in 32 games in his first full season as a professional, before he moved on to Utrecht and netted 35 times in 80 appearances there over two years to earn a €5.4m move to Sporting in 2011.
The Dutchman only improved in Portugal, as he netted 25 goals in 46 games in his first season, then 20 strikes in 40 appearances in his second season while building a reputation as one of Europe’s premier goalscorers.
