Sold for £16m, now worth 55% less: Wolves had lucky escape with 28 y/o “massive flop” - opinion

Wolves have shown over the past few years that as well as signing new players to come into the club, they have also seen a number of players move out of Molineux for significant transfer fees.

One player that left the Old Gold in recent years that they will not be missing is winger Helder Costa, who was sold to fellow Premier League club Leeds United back in the 2020 summer transfer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £16m.

Wolves originally signed the attacker on loan from Benfica in 2016 before securing him on a permanent basis for a then-record club transfer fee of £13m in the 2017 January window.

During his time at Molineux, the winger racked up a total of 19 goals and 19 assists in 109 appearances across all competitions.

Since leaving the Midlands club for Leeds, the 28-year-old’s career has probably not gone the way he or the Elland Road side would have liked having scored just eight goals in 71 appearances before being moved out on loan to Spanish club Valencia last summer.

Even with the La Liga side, the Angola winger hasn’t been able to prove himself with no goals scored in 20 appearances as well as a rather underwhelming overall performance rating of 6.47/10 according to WhoScored.

Labelled as a “massive flop” for the Yorkshire club by Noel Whelan, Costa’s current market value of £7.2m from Transfermarkt shows a 55% decrease from the fee that Wolves picked up for him.

Taking all of this into account, it’s safe to say that Wolves made the right decision in selling Costa when they did and making a profit on him by doing so.

Despite not being particularly potent in front of goal this season with 24 goals scored in 25 league games, it’s hard to see the former Old Gold attacker being much help in that