Ricky van Wolfswinkel

On 24 September, he made his first appearance in a 2–1 home defeat to Deportivo La Coruña, replacing Jorge Molina in the 59th minute.

Ricky van Wolfswinkel (born 27 January 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a striker for Eredivisie club FC Twente.

He has played top-flight football in the Netherlands, Portugal, England, France, Spain and Switzerland and has been capped twice by the Netherlands national team.

Van Wolfswinkel started his football career at the D-pupils of Vitesse Arnhem.

In the A-juniors, he became top scorer in the national first division, winning a prize awarded by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) for the feat.

This prize was presented by Wesley Sneijder in 2007.

On 5 April 2008, Van Wolfswinkel made his debut for Vitesse's first team in a match against Sparta Rotterdam, in which he was the substitute in the 85th minute for Santi Kolk.

Against De Graafschap, in the 2008–09 season, he was in the starting lineup for the first time.

In his third match that season, against Sparta Rotterdam, he scored his first Eredivisie goal.

On 29 May 2009, Van Wolfswinkel announced his departure from Vitesse, subsequently signing a three-year contract with FC Utrecht.

He began the 2010–11 league campaign with a goal in a 3–1 loss against Feyenoord.

On 22 August 2010, he scored two goals against Willem II resulting in a 3–0 win for Utrecht.

On 26 August 2010, Van Wolfswinkel scored a hat-trick against Celtic in the UEFA Europa League; Utrecht went on to win the match 4–0.

On 3 October 2010, Van Wolfswinkel scored two penalties against Ajax to gain a 2–1 away win over the Dutch runners-up.

On 3 June 2011, Van Wolfswinkel moved to Sporting CP, signing a five-year contract on a €5.4 million deal; Sporting CP was given financial aid by Sporting Portugal Fund and Quality Sports Investments.

He scored his first goal for Sporting on 10 September 2011 against Paços de Ferreira in a 3–2 win.

He was the SJPF Player of the Month for September 2011.

Overall, he scored a total of 25 goals during the 2011–12 season, including a hat-trick in the final game, a 3–2 win over Braga at the Estádio José Alvalade on 12 May 2012.

He scored a hat-trick, again in a 3–2 win over Braga, on 1 April 2013.

On 22 March 2013, it was announced that Van Wolfswinkel had agreed a deal to join English club Norwich City for the 2013–14 season, a transfer worth €10 million, plus up to €2 million in bonuses.

He joined the Canaries on 1 July on a four-year deal.

He stated that the famous Netherlands player Johan Neeskens had urged him to join Norwich, saying, "Ricky, you have to go. It's a great club for you. If you have a great feeling, do it."

He scored on his league debut on 17 August, in a 2–2 home draw for Norwich against Everton.

After the match, he said in an interview that Manchester United and Netherlands international Robin van Persie also recommended Norwich to him.

Van Persie was reported to have told Van Wolfswinkel that Norwich are "a difficult team to beat" and that the "crowd always get really behind them."

Van Wolfswinkel was involved in controversy in the 0–0 home draw against Cardiff City on 26 October 2013.

After teammate Alexander Tettey was injured, Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall sportingly put the ball out of play.

Van Wolfswinkel quickly threw the ball to Leroy Fer, who kicked the ball into the goal.

This caused outrage amongst the Cardiff players, who started shoving both Van Wolfswinkel and Fer.

The goal was disallowed despite it not technically being a violation of any rules.

In his second season in Lisbon, Van Wolfswinkel recorded another 14 league goals in 30 games, although his team missed out on European competition by finishing 7th.

In February 2014, he was alleged to have been kicked by Manchester City's Yaya Touré, who was investigated, and Van Wolfswinkel welcomed The FA's verdict that Touré had done no wrong.

Van Wolfswinkel failed to score for the remainder of the season, making 25 Premier League appearances in total, while Norwich were relegated to the Championship after finishing with only 33 points.

On 5 August 2014, Van Wolfswinkel joined Saint-Étienne of the French Ligue 1 on a season-long loan.

He stated that his goal was to work hard for the team and to be important for the club.

Van Wolfswinkel scored his first goal for the club on 25 September, the first goal in the 1–1 home draw against Bordeaux.

On 30 November, he scored the second goal as the team won 3–0 in the Derby du Rhône against Lyon, his team's first home win over their rivals in 20 years.

Upon his return to Norwich from his loan spell at Saint-Étienne, he scored against Rotherham United in the League Cup second round on 25 August 2015, a 2–1 away win.

On 31 August 2015, Van Wolfswinkel joined Real Betis of the Spanish La Liga on a season-long loan.

He scored his first two goals on 15 December in a Copa del Rey tie against Sporting Gijón, which finished as a 3–3 draw, and on 19 April 2016, he finally scored his first La Liga goal in a 1–0 home victory over Las Palmas.