World Cup wishlists, early movers, big clearouts: 2026 summer transfer window trends

At the end of a busy transfer window which spanned the World Cup, here are some of the subplots of the summer The World Cup is always a good shop window. Yan Diomande was already a rising star at RB Leipzig but shining for Côte d’Ivoire in the US helped push up his price tag before a £115.7m move to Real Madrid. There were other breakout stars: Switzerland’s Johan Manzambi, whose signature Aston Villa pipped Newcastle to; Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Kerim Alajbegovic, who went to Juventus;