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One of the traditions of the World Cup – at least since the 1994 edition – is that you can almost guarantee at least a handful of players who impress in the tournament will be making transfers to the Premier League shortly afterwards.
We’re only a few days removed from the final of this year’s edition, and already Premier League clubs have been linked with names that stood out in Russia like Ivan Perisic, Hirving Lozano and Benjamin Pavard.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen plenty of times in the past that impressive performances in a World Cup don’t necessarily translate to Premier League success. Here are five World Cup-inspired signings who flopped in the Premier League.
#1 Stephane Guivarc’h
While Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann scored plenty of goals as France came away from Russia this year victorious, their main striker – Olivier Giroud – didn’t score a single goal during the tournament. Fascinatingly though, it wasn’t the first time the main striker for France didn’t score a goal during a winning tournament. Step forward, Stephane Guivarc’h.
Back in 1998 Guivarc’h had become highly rated after scoring 43 league goals for Auxerre across two seasons – 1996/97 and 1997/98 – and so it was unsurprising when he was named in Aime Jacquet’s squad for the 1998 World Cup.
More surprising was the fact that despite failing to score a goal, Jacquet kept picking him and claimed he’d played a pivotal role in France’s triumph.
Evidently convinced by Jacquet’s opinion, then-Newcastle boss decided to shell out £3.5m for Guivarc’h in readiness for the 1997/98 season.
Surprisingly enough given his poor goal record in the World Cup, the French striker actually scored on his debut – but that was as good as it got.
Dalglish clearly couldn’t see the talents that Jacquet had done, and so Guivarc’h only played another three times for the Magpies – twice from the bench – before he was offloaded to Rangers just three months after arriving at St. James’ Park.
Incredibly, Newcastle made a profit on the striker – who only lasted until the end of 1998/99 in Scotland before moving back to Auxerre.
#2 Kleberson
While Brazilian midfielder Kleberson didn’t move in the summer directly following the 2002 World Cup, it was his performances in that tournament – starring from midfield and setting up a goal in the final as Brazil defeated Germany to win the competition – that inspired Alex Ferguson to shell out £6.5m to bring him to Manchester United in the summer of 2003.
Ferguson was hoping the Brazilian would be able to replace the outgoing Juan Veron as the driving force in United’s midfield, but Kleberson simply didn’t seem up to the task from day one. He injured himself in his second outing for United and ended the 2003/04 season having made just 12 appearances.
By 2004/05 he was already considered a flop signing by the Red Devils’ fanbase, and in turn that meant that he lost his place in Brazil’s starting line-up too, despite playing in the La Selecao side that won the 2004 Copa America.
After just eight Premier League appearances in his second season at United, he was offloaded to Turkish side Besiktas – at a financial loss – and is now considered arguably Ferguson’s worst-ever signing.
#3 El-Hadji Diouf
One of the breakout stars of the 2002 World Cup, practically nobody had heard of Senegalese striker El-Hadji Diouf before the tournament in Japan and South Korea, but some stirring performances – most notably a Man of the Match showing as Senegal upset holders France in the opening match – meant that as soon as the World Cup was over, he was hot property.
In the end, it was Liverpool who secured the colourful striker’s signature, splashing out £10m to bring him to Merseyside from Lens.
And at first, it looked like the move would pay off for both parties – Diouf scored twice on his Anfield debut as the Reds defeated Southampton 3-0. Unfortunately, Liverpool fans then had to wait a stunning seven months for his next goal.
Diouf was clearly not quite up to the Premier League pace, and his reputation only plummeted further when he was banned for two matches for spitting in the face of a Celtic supporter during a UEFA Cup tie. The Senegal striker then went goalless for the remainder of 2002/03 – and failed to find the target in 2003/04 as well before being exiled to Bolton Wanderers.
In a total condemnation of the striker, Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher later described Diouf as having “one of the worst strike rates in Liverpool history – he’s the only No. 9 to ever go through a full season without scoring”. It was a far cry from what people expected when they saw his World Cup performances.
#4 Robert Jarni
It’s hard to be considered a success when you don’t even kick a ball for your new Premier League club, but somehow that’s what happened to Croatian left-winger Robert Jarni following some impressive showings in the 1998 World Cup.
Jarni started in all seven of Croatia’s games as they made the semi-finals, and even scored a goal against Germany in their 3-0 quarter-final victory.
Strangely enough it wasn’t one of the Premier League’s giants that signed the Croatian from Real Betis later that summer – instead, it was perennial strugglers Coventry City, who had only managed to stave off the threat of relegation on the last day of 1996/97. Then-Coventry chairman even claimed the Sky Blues would only be bringing in world-class stars from then on.
In a bizarre turn of events though, less than a week after signing for Coventry for £2.5m, Jarni was once again on the move – to Real Madrid for a cool £3.5m, giving the Sky Blues a tidy profit of £1m. Betis fans immediately cried conspiracy – claiming Coventry had only gotten involved as Betis wouldn’t sell the player directly to Real.
For Coventry fans though, the only feeling was a sheer disappointment. They never got to see one of the 1998 World Cup’s true stars ply his trade at Highfield Road, while the move to the Bernabeu barely paid off for Jarni either as he was restricted largely to appearances from the substitute’s bench.
#5 Milan Jovanovic
Serbian striker Milan Jovanovic actually signed a pre-contract agreement with Liverpool before the 2010 World Cup, but due to the Reds changing their manager at the end of 2009/10 – replacing Rafa Benitez with Roy Hodgson – it looked like he would never arrive at Anfield.
Benitez had moved to Inter Milan and after Jovanovic had a good showing in South Africa – scoring the winner as Serbia upset Germany – he wanted the striker to join him in Italy.
Hodgson evidently sold the Liverpool move to him though, and so Jovanovic made his move to Merseyside looking to make an impact. Unfortunately for him, he simply couldn’t replicate his international form on the Premier League stage.
Jovanovic scored his first Liverpool goal in a League Cup tie with Northampton Town in September 2010 but struggled in the league and as Hodgson’s disastrous reign was brought to an end and he was replaced by Kenny Dalglish, the Serbian slipped even further down the pecking order and could barely even make the bench.
In the end, he ended the season with 10 Premier League appearances and no goals, and it came as no surprise when he was sold to Anderlecht in the summer of 2011 – with Liverpool ending up losing around £1.5m on the striker.
Did we miss out on any signings from this list? Sound off in the comments section below!
