World Cup 2026: Five World Cup revelations who found glory at the tournament but struggled after their transfers

Johan Manzambi, Crysencio Summerville and Andreas Schjelderup have used the 2026 World Cup to force their way into the conversation about the summer's most coveted players. Each could be set for the move of their lives. But history suggests that a brilliant tournament is no guarantee of what comes next.

Manzambi — three goals and two assists for Switzerland — is expected to join Aston Villa for more than £51m after PSG's interest cooled. Summerville is the subject of a battle between Roma and Manchester United at above £38m. Schjelderup is attracting interest from several Premier League clubs after his performances for Norway. The pattern is familiar: a standout tournament, a soaring valuation, and a transfer that almost mechanically follows.

What football history shows, repeatedly, is that the mechanics of the move guarantee nothing. Here are five players who shone at a World Cup — and then struggled to justify the hype.

Alberto Tarantini: World Cup winner to Premier League misfit

Argentina's 1978 World Cup triumph made household names of players who had been unknown outside South America.

Tarantini, a rugged left-back with a memorable mane of curly hair, arrived at Birmingham City that same year in the slipstream of compatriots Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, who had joined Tottenham Hotspur.

The experiment lasted precisely 23 appearances and one goal. It ended amid fighting with a supporter who had been abusing him, compounded by a violent challenge on Manchester United's Brian Greenhoff.

By 1979, Tarantini — capped 61 times for Argentina — was back in his homeland at Talleres de Cordoba. His English adventure is remembered as a cautionary tale rather than a chapter in the globalisation of football.

El-Hadji Diouf: Liverpool's most regretted signing?

Diouf arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 2002 having been named in the Team of the Tournament at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where he led Senegal to the quarter-finals. Gerard Houllier paid £15m and chose him ahead of Nicolas Anelka to play alongside Michael Owen.

What followed over two seasons has become part of Premier League folklore, and not for flattering reasons. Six goals in 80 appearances would have been considered a modest return regardless.

Add the incidents — spitting on an opposition supporter, a catalogue of disciplinary issues, and a reputation built more on nightlife than goalscoring — and the picture is stark.

Steven Gerrard later reflected: 'Some people have asked me if I saw a comparison between Diouf and Mario Balotelli. I've always said no. I have respect for Balotelli. I have none for Diouf.'

Jamie Carragher added: 'I actually enjoyed playing against Diouf because I could put one on him, which you can't do with your own teammates.' His subsequent spells at Bolton, Blackburn, Sunderland and Leeds rarely lifted above the mediocre.

James Rodriguez: the Real Madrid system grinds a World Cup hero to dust

No player at Brazil 2014 lit up the tournament the way James Rodriguez did.

The Colombian scored six goals — including a first-touch volley against Uruguay that was immediately celebrated as one of the great World Cup goals — to win the Golden Boot. Real Madrid paid £64m after his outstanding season at Monaco.

Under Carlo Ancelotti, it started well: 13 goals in 29 appearances. Then Zinedine Zidane arrived and built his midfield around Kroos, Casemiro and Modric, with Isco regularly preferred ahead of the Colombian in high-stakes fixtures. James drifted.

A two-year loan to Bayern Munich followed, then a final season of 14 underwhelming appearances before leaving permanently. Everton, Al-Rayyan, Olympiakos, Sao Paulo — a career that never found its footing again. His final act in European football was a relegation battle at Rayo Vallecano.

Robert Jarni: the World Cup hero with two transfers in one summer

Croatia's third-place finish at France 98 produced a generation of players who went on to dominate European football. Jarni, a dynamic left-sided player who featured in all seven of Croatia's matches, was not among them.

His transfer that summer became one of the more convoluted episodes in football history. He left Betis — apparently for Coventry City, then immediately for Real Madrid, with competing versions of events that have never been fully reconciled.

The player insisted he never signed for Coventry; others claimed the English club acted as a pass-through to circumvent Betis's refusal to sell to a direct competitor.

Whatever the truth, Jarni made 36 appearances for Real Madrid, contributing three goals and seven assists from a role as a left-sided wing-back. It was not enough. By the following summer he was at Las Palmas in the Spanish second division.

Denilson: the most expensive player in the world, crushed by the weight of it

Denilson came off the bench for Brazil at France 98 and contributed two assists. Betis paid the equivalent of £26m for him the same summer — a world record fee at the time for a player who had not even been a starter at the tournament.

The weight of that valuation proved crushing. Denilson never established himself in the Betis first team, experienced relegation in his second season, went out on loan to Flamengo and spent large parts of his career managing knee injuries.

Twelve goals in 185 appearances for Betis told its own story. He was eventually sold to Bordeaux in 2005.

'They paid a lot for me and expected too much,' he later reflected. 'I was young, it was hard. I was not ready to deal with all of that. After what I experienced in Spain, nothing could be worse.'

He won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, but a career in club football that took him to Saudi Arabia, the United States, Greece and China never matched that achievement.