Middlesbrough FC never got the best out of £2.8m man - he now plays for Girona | OneFootball

Boro will regret not getting more out of Cristhian Stuani given his form since leaving the club.

Middlesbrough never got the best out of Cristhian Stuani during his time in the North East, especially when you consider what he has achieved since leaving the club.

Boro paid £2.8million to sign him from La Liga outfit Espanyol back in 2015, and he helped them to promotion to the Premier League in his first season. Stuani notched seven league strikes in the Championship that season, before following that up with four more on Boro’s return to the top flight.

However, since he has left England, Stuani has enjoyed huge success. The Uruguayan plundered 40 goals in the Spanish top flight within two seasons of leaving Middlesbrough and has since helped his side qualify for Europe.

With that in mind, Boro must surely regret not getting more out of the frontman while he was at the club.

Stuani’s time at Middlesbrough was mixed

Stuani first joined Boro back in the summer of 2015, with the club parting with £2.8million to secure his services. He arrived in England having struck 12 La Liga goals for Espanyol the season before.

It’s fair to say though that Stuani endured mixed fortunes during his debut campaign for Boro. He ended the season with 11 goals in all competitions – seven of them coming in league play.

He crucially netted their only goal in their 1-1 draw with Brighton on the final day of the season, the result which brought their seven-year absence from the top flight to a close.

However, before that goal in May, Stuani hadn’t scored in any competition all calendar year, which, it’s fair to say, constitutes a fairly worrying spell for a striker.

He began Boro’s subsequent Premier League campaign well, netting a brace to seal all three points away at Sunderland in the second game of the season, but went on to score just twice more all season.

Middlesbrough were relegated straight back to the Championship at the end of the season and Stuani returned to Spain, joining Girona for an undisclosed fee. He had netted just 11 league goals for the club.

Stuani has become a hugely important player for Girona

Stuani returned to Spain in the summer of 2017, with Girona newly promoted into the top flight at the time.

The Catalan outfit surprised everybody with an impressive first season in the top flight, finishing 10th at the end of the season. Stuani proved to be the star of the show, hitting 21 goals from just 33 appearances in the league.

He was equally dangerous the following season, finding the net another 19 times. However, this time, his team were less impressive and were relegated back to the second division.

That did little to halt Stuani’s form though, and the South American plundered 61 league strikes over the course of Girona’s three-year stay in the second division.

They were promoted in the 2021/22 season and have since solidified their position in the middle reaches of La Liga. They even finished third last season, qualifying for their first ever Champions League campaign in the process.

Now 38, Stuani got his first taste of Europe’s premier club competition this season, but failed to find the net across eight appearances.

He now finds himself as the club’s record goalscorer by some distance, with 136 strikes to his name.

While the frontman’s spell in the North East was not overly poor, whenever a player leaves a club and suddenly starts scoring, it is only natural that fans will wonder what went wrong for him at their club.