Five players who could get a big World Cup transfer

FT Desk

• Updated: 15 Nov 2022 16:26 GMT
• 4 min read

The World Cup has a habit of making stars who earn big moves after impressing at the tournament. Football Transfers looks at five of the most likely to be the next.

Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira both moved from mid-table Bundesliga clubs to Real Madrid after impressing for Germany at the World Cup in 2010, while Gilberto Silva became an Arsenal legend after impressing with Brazil at the 2002 edition.

Football Transfers looks at five players who are perhaps the most likely to follow suit this winter…

READ: Depay in, De Ligt out: How will the Netherlands line up at the 2022 World Cup?

Cody Gakpo

Cody Gakpo nearly joined Manchester United this summer before the Red Devils shelled out €100 million for Ajax winger Antony instead. But the Dutchman got his head down, plundering 13 goals and 17 assists from just 24 games in all competitions for PSV Eindhoven so far this season.

Gakpo tends to play more centrally for the Netherlands than he does for PSV, but if can carry his club form into the World Cup, more than just Man Utd will be in for the winger, and his current employers might need to sell having run into financial trouble.

Jamal Musiala

Jamal Musiala has been flying somewhat under the radar after swapping Chelsea for Bayern Munich and then England for Germany in recent seasons, especially with his former Young Lions teammate stealing much of the transfer headlines in Germany with his Borussia Dortmund form.

READ: Musiala enjoys CRAZY rise in transfer value

But Musiala has 22 goal-involvements from 22 games in all competitions for Bayern this season, and with Thomas Muller nursing a hip injury, he could get the nod in his preferred No.10 position. If he impresses in Qatar, even Bayern would struggle to hold onto Musiala.

Diogo Costa

Cristiano Ronaldo's explosive interview with Piers Morgan, and to a lesser degree Bruno Fernandes' lukewarm reaction to it, threaten to derail Portugal's campaign before it's even started, but behind them, Diogo Costa exudes calm as their No.1.

Costa has pulled in front of Rui Patricio as his nation's first-choice goalkeeper, and he could be ready to do the same at Manchester Unite to David de Gea. He'll have Fernandes and Diogo Dalot as teammates for club and country by then, but Ronaldo will likely have left.

Borna Sosa

Borna Sosa is an assist machine. He is also a left-back. He is also a left-back playing for a very good team in Croatia. But the same can't be at club level, with the 24-year-old turning out for relegation-threatened Stuttgart.

That hasn't stopped him racing to eight assists in all competitions. Sosa'a delivery has a left-footed David Beckham quality to it, and if he shows that on the international stage, there's no way he's staying at Stuttgart long-term.

Michy Batshuayi

It could be argued that Michy Batshuayi has already had his shot at European football's big-time, with Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund already on his footballing CV, but he was never really given a chance at the former and he lit up the latter with nine goals in 14 games in a brief loan spell in early 2018.

Now scoring on a regular basis in Turkey with Fenerbahce, Batshuayi could get the nod to lead the line for this golden generation Belgium with Romelu Lukaku struggling for form and fitness. Had three goals and three assists in the UEFA Nations League coming into the tournament…