There's nothing like a major international tournament for players capturing global attention in a way they never would otherwise.
As someone pointed out recently, if you only watched him without seeing any club football you might be tempted to think Xherdan Shaqiri was one of the best players in the world. From James Rodriguez to Enzo Fernandez, individual performances on such a big stage can be the perfect audition to earn a big-money move.
Manchester City are not generally as reactionary in the transfer market, scouting their players for months and years rather than lumping in on the breakout star of a tournament. However, they have still picked up some excellent signings on the back of them.
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Josko Gvardiol was a standout performer at the Qatar World Cup in 2022, helping Croatia to third place while only 20 years old. Having to wear a mask for some games helped to pick the defender out, but even still he solidified his position as one of the most exciting prospects in the game.
Seven months later, City had signed him up as the second-most expensive defender of all time to add to a defence that Pep Guardiola had held up as responsible for winning the Blues the Treble. However sorry the club were to see Aymeric Laporte leave, Gvardiol proved invaluable during the run-in and his potential remains sky-high.
Even more impressive was the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko for less than £2m in 2016. Aged 19, he had just played all three of Ukraine's matches at Euro 2016 but was still a signing that was firmly under the radar in Pep Guardiola's first summer at the Etihad.
It would take Zinchenko more than 18 months to break in at City and even then there were multiple years where he could have left the club, only to keep fighting for a place in the first team. In his final game in 2022, he came off the bench in the final league match to help inspire the 3-2 comeback win over Aston Villa to give City the title.
A £30m sale to Arsenal meant that the Blues made more than 15 times what they paid for him, having had six years of service that had included four league titles and a Champions League final. Zinchenko has to go down as one of the best signings of the Guardiola era because of the value that he brought to the club.
City will struggle to find such a bargain again, but that has to be the ambition as they continue to build a title-winning squad for years to come. They will be watching the Euros closely to see if any of its stars have made their case for City to push to sign them.
