World Cup 2018: 5 Players Whose Value Has Skyrocketed
The World Cup so often has such a pivotal role to play in the transfer business of the respective transfer window that ties to each edition of football’s greatest competition. A good World Cup can turn a player into a true superstar of the game, landing them a big-money move to one of the biggest teams in the game.
The Russia-held tournament helped to put several names on the global map this summer, and it also helped to enhance the lofty reputation of some impressive talents. And make no mistake about it, there will be a whole slew of transfer activity playing out over the next month or two purely because of what took place in Russia.
With all of that in mind, then, here are five players whose value has skyrocketed due to their exploits in Russia.
Hirving Lozano
Going into this summer’s World Cup, many had earmarked Mexico’s Hirving Lozano as having the potential to be one of the tournament’s biggest stars – much like how James Rodriguez shone for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup, securing a big-money move to Real Madrid in the process.
Credit where credit’s due, Lozano lived up to the hype and was a major factor in Mexico reaching the last 16; in particular in how he tore through the German defence in his nation’s 1-0 group stage win over the 2014 World Cup winners.
Lozano was on fire for PSV last season, but so many times we’ve seen players hyped up before a tournament, only for them to fail to deliver anything of note. The flying forward most certainly did everything he could to enhance his reputation, though – not to mention enhance his ever-increasing price tag.
Most recently, Lozano has been linked with a summer transfer to Manchester United, in addition to Barcelona being in the hunt. Wherever he ends up plying his trade in the 2018/19 season, Lozano’s exploits in Russia have boosted his value massively.
Nicknamed Chucky, the electric Lozano finished his World Cup campaign with four appearances, one goal, and one assist to his name.