Middlesbrough FC hit the jackpot with record-breaking striker deal - They made profit as well | OneFootball

The most expensive Nigerian at the time had a good couple of years at the Riverside.

Yakubu will go down as one of the most underrated goalscorers in Premier League history, having netted double digits in six different top-flight campaigns for four different clubs.

He will, however, go down in history as the most expensive Nigerian footballer of all time at one point, after Middlesbrough bought him in the summer of 2005 for £7.5 million after impressing for two-and-a-half years at Portsmouth.

Pompey signed 'The Yak' on loan midway through their promotion from the then-First Division, now-Championship in the 2002/03 campaign from Israeli side Maccabi Haifa before making the move permanent in the summer of 2003.

After scoring a goal every other game in the old First Division, Yakubu netted 28 in his first two seasons in the top flight.

The then-22-year-old had a lot to live up to on Teesside, as he was set to lead the line alongside Mark Viduka for a side who had once again qualified for the UEFA Cup following a seventh-placed league finish.

But he was able to live up to the task, and when it was time for him to move on after a couple of years at Middlesbrough, he earned the club a decent profit too.

Yakubu's time at Middlesbrough - Premier League consistency and a European final

Yakubu had scored at least 12 goals in his first two Premier League seasons with Portsmouth, and he was able to continue that in his two campaigns with Middlesbrough.

Despite the pressure of being the most expensive Nigerian footballer at the time, the Yak scored 19 in all competitions during his first season, and was a big contributor in the club's run to the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) final and the FA Cup semi-final, where they were beaten by Sevilla and West Ham United, respectively.

However, as would be the case with any club that makes such a deep domestic and continental run, league form took a hit, and Boro failed to qualify for any European competitions that season after finishing 14th, despite Yakubu's 13 league goals.

Middlesbrough didn't improve in the league much in the 2006/07 season, picking up one more point and finishing in 12th. Boro did get to the quarter-final of the FA Cup that season, but were beaten by Manchester United in a replay.

Yakubu scored four in that cup run, which added to the 12 goals he scored in the league that season.

However, his desire to play in the Champions League, a competition he scored five in as many games during his sole campaign with Maccabi Haifa, saw him move away that summer to an Everton side who had finished the 2006/07 campaign in the top six and had ambitions of breaking into the top four.

Middlesbrough earned a profit on Yakubu after two great seasons

Yakubu left Middlesbrough having scored the second-most Premier League goals in the four-season span he had for both Boro and Portsmouth, second only to Thierry Henry.

Therefore, a sizable fee would have been needed to take the 24-year-old away from the Riverside, and Everton agreed a then-club-record fee of £11.25 million to acquire his services.

Unfortunately, Yakubu didn't get to play in the Champions League again in his career, but did have three consecutive seasons in the Europa League with Everton before he fell out of favour under David Moyes and was loaned out to Leicester City for the second half of the 2010/11 Championship season.

He would go on to prove his worth in the Premier League for one more season at Blackburn Rovers, scoring 17 times (his highest top-flight return) before joining the now-defunct Chinese Super League side Guangzhou City.

For Middlesbrough, however, to bring in someone who broke a transfer record at the time, to sell him for a profit of just below £4 million two seasons later represents a good bit of business, even if they arguably didn't recover from losing both Yakubu and Mark Viduka in the same window, and suffered relegation two years later.