The biggest non-World Cup transfer in every World Cup year since 1966 | OneFootball

Nothing inflates transfer fees – and even just the perception of potential targets – quite like a good World Cup.

Every four years, clubs fall into the trap of buying someone who stands out at the World Cup, who then turns out to not be everything they seemed. Of course, there are plenty of success stories too, but more than enough examples to encourage caution.

Regardless of the fee, the World Cup gives a chance for some players to showcase themselves ahead of a big move at club level. Some of those may have been in the pipeline already; others develop as a player’s profile rises at the tournament.

But there are big deals to be done with players not involved at the World Cup – yes, even after the expansion to 48 teams – and so we’ve taken a look at the most expensive signing from each World Cup year since 1966 of a player who wasn’t at that World Cup.

2026: Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham Hotspur

Last year you could get a relegated Mateus Fernandes for £42m. This year – and one solitary cap for Portugal later – it’s cost Spurs about twice as much.

Fernandes became hot property after a productive second season in the Premier League with West Ham, even though it ended in the same fate as his first with Southampton.

There was interest from Manchester United as well as Spurs, which surely helped drive the price up as West Ham stood their ground.

In the end, Fernandes has moved for £85m, a fee only surpassed so far this summer by England World Cup squad member Elliot Anderson with his move to Manchester City.

Still only 21, Fernandes made his senior Portugal debut in March. He has 21 caps for the under-21s to his name.

Thanks to his move to Spurs, Fernandes has become the second most expensive 21-year-old of all time after Moises Caicedo.

2022 (January 2023): Mykhaylo Mudryk to Chelsea

The 2022 World Cup being held in November and December throws us out a bit here, so we’ll have to go for the January window directly after it.

The biggest move that month involved a World Cup winner, with Enzo Fernandez signing for Chelsea from Benfica.

This was, of course, the second window of BlueCo transfer madness at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea’s relatively new owners tried to bulk buy as many shiny new toys as they could.

Their second most expensive signing behind Fernandez was Mykhaylo Mudryk, whose Ukraine side hadn’t qualified for the World Cup.

Chelsea have got precious little value from their initial £62m investment, with Mudryk only scoring 10 goals in their colours and now facing a four-year ban.

2018: Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City

While the other great shrewd signing of Leicester’s 2015-16 title win, N’Golo Kante, was winning the World Cup in 2018 with France, Mahrez was twiddling his thumbs after Algeria’s failure to qualify.

Unlike Kante, who’d gone to Chelsea two years earlier, Mahrez had to wait for his big move. But it ultimately came his way in July 2018, when Manchester City bought him for what was then a club-record £60m fee.

There were five World Cup players who made more costly switches that summer, led by Kylian Mbappe as his PSG move became permanent.

Mahrez could have been there too, had he decided to represent his country of birth – France – but he was already an Algeria international of four years by the time of his move to City.

It was money well spent, with 236 games, 78 goals and four more Premier League titles following for Mahrez.

2014: Ander Herrera to Manchester United

The 2014 World Cup had as big a bearing on transfers as we can remember, with Luis Suarez’s biting incident setting off the dominoes which facilitated his move from Liverpool to Barcelona, and tournament top scorer and breakout star James Rodriguez earning a switch to Real Madrid.

Ander Herrera wasn’t even Manchester United’s first or second most expensive signing that summer, but Angel Di Maria and Luke Shaw were both at the World Cup.

Herrera wasn’t, for a Spain side whose World Cup defence ended in the group stage.

In fact, the Bilbao-born midfielder only ever played twice for his country: once in 2016 and once in 2017. Always plenty of competition in that Spain midfield, to be fair.

Completing his move to Old Trafford a year later than they’d have ideally envisaged, were it not for some mysterious meddling lawyers, Herrera became a decent servant for United over his five years with the club, making 189 appearances.

2010: Mario Balotelli to Manchester City

Like Spain in 2014, Italy were unable to retain their World Cup title in 2010, also dropping out in the groups.

Marcello Lippi didn’t think Balotelli was ready to be part of their squad, since he was still only 19 when the tournament kicked off.

But his 28 goals for Inter Milan over the previous three years were worth taking note of, and that’s what prompted Man City to buy him for about £24m.

The next two and a half years were, erm, entertaining to say the least.

2006: Mahamadou Diarra to Real Madrid

Mali have never made it to a World Cup finals and thus Mahamadou Diarra was free to focus on his club future in the summer of 2006.

After four years with Lyon, the last of which saw him named in the Ligue 1 team of the year, the midfielder made the leap to Real Madrid, where he would last four and a half years.

Having won Ligue 1 in each of his seasons with Lyon, he continued his title-winning streak by lifting the La Liga trophy in his first two seasons in Spain.

2002: Clarence Seedorf to AC Milan

The Netherlands were conspicuous by their absence from the 2002 World Cup, just a couple of years after reaching the Euro 2000 semi-finals.

They had a squad stacked with talent, including Clarence Seedorf coming into his prime at the age of 26. But they became one of the biggest nations to fall in qualifying.

Seedorf used the summer to leave Inter for AC Milan, surprisingly without even a whiff of controversy.

His move was part of a direct swap deal in which Francesco Coco went the other way, with both players valued at €22.5m.

It’s fair to say AC Milan got the better end of the stick.

1998: Nicola Ventola to Inter Milan

Nicola Ventola was a 20-year-old prospect who Inter hoped could be the next big thing when they signed him from Bari in 1998.

The next big thing, he was not. Unless you count getting to have a three-game spell with Crystal Palace six years later as big.

In fact, Ventola never made it past the under-21s for Italy at international level.

1994: Daniel Fonseca to Roma

Daniel Fonseca had already been playing for Uruguay for four years by 1994, but they failed to qualify for that summer’s World Cup.

The forward was already familiar to his buyers Roma after spending the past couple of years in Italy with Napoli, and two with Cagliari before that.

1990: Davide Fontolan to Inter Milan

Just as it would be for most of the decade, the big money was mainly being spent by Italian clubs in 1990, with 18 of that summer’s 19 most expensive deals involving a Serie A club as the buyer.

Roberto Baggio was that summer’s biggest mover, but was in Italy’s World Cup squad. Conversely, Davide Fontolan – subject of a move from Genoa to Inter – never played for his national team.

1986: Roberto Donadoni to AC Milan

Roberto Donadoni wasn’t quite ready for international football at the time of Italy’s World Cup defence in 1986, even though he wasn’t far off.

The then-22-year-old made the step up from Atalanta to AC Milan in that summer’s most expensive transfer regardless of World Cup status. He would remain there for a decade.

1982: Roberto Mancini to Sampdoria

A similar story for Roberto Mancini, who was only 17 when he left Bologna in Serie B for his first taste of top-flight action with Sampdoria.

His next chapter was one he enjoyed for 15 years, a spell that included seven trophies.

1978: Roberto Pruzzo to Roma

What is it with all these Robertos? Pruzzo was a 23-year-old moving up from Genoa to Roma, where he would become the all-time record scorer until Francesco Totti came along.

Despite that, Pruzzo never got much of a look in for Italy, only making six caps and never scoring.

1974: Willy Brokamp to Ajax

The Total Football Netherlands squad of the early 1970s was a tough one to get into, but striker Willy Brokamp managed to six times between 1970 and 1973.

He never did so again after, though, despite scoring six goals in those games. He was 28 when he moved from MVV to Ajax in 1974 while his compatriots and some of his soon-to-be clubmates were reaching the World Cup final.

1970: Jan van Beveren to PSV

The Netherlands hadn’t even qualified for the previous World Cup in 1970 – the same year goalkeeper Jan van Beveren left Sparta Rotterdam for PSV in the summer’s most expensive move.

1966: Sergio Petrelli to Hellas Verona/Rinus Israel to Feyenoord

It’s a tie for the last step in our journey back here, with no difference (according to Transfermarkt) between the fees Hellas Verona paid for Sergio Petrelli and Feyenoord for Rinus Israel.

Petrelli never made his debut at senior level for Italy, whereas Israel did for the Netherlands, who weren’t at the World Cup that year.

It was, of course, won by England, whose midfielder Alan Ball was the biggest mover overall that summer by joining Everton.