Major football tournaments can have a significant influence on the trajectory of a player’s career. Put in a few good performances and you can earn the move of your dreams or cement yourself as a superstar.
But a successful career requires more than a small sample of impressive displays at a European Championship, Copa America or World Cup. What you show on that big stage becomes the standard expectation for the next few years of your career; some players thrive under that pressure, but others crumble.
The Spotlight Effect
There are few other circumstances where you can go from being a relative unknown to a household name in the space of a few weeks.
Go as far back as 1958 and the star of that World Cup was a 17-year-old Pele, who remains one of the best to have played the game. Of course, in the modern era, many young talents are picked up with very few first-team appearances to their name. After missing out on Neymar to Barcelona, Real Madrid made this one of their top priorities and secured early deals for the likes of Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Endrick.
James Rodriguez secured the Golden Boot with six goals at the 2014 World Cup and earned a transfer from Monaco to Madrid in the following months. Liverpool have nurtured some tremendous talent from their youth ranks but were convinced to make moves for Cody Gakpo and Alexis Mac Allister shortly after the 2022 World Cup too.
Georges Mikautadze impressed for Georgia at Euro 2024 and was expected to quickly swap Metz for a major European club.
The Double-Edged Sword
While it can be a catapult to stardom, impressing at a major tournament can also send your career the other way.
Rodriguez failed to maintain the standards he displayed at the World Cup in Brazil and spent two years on loan at Bayern Munich before being sold to Everton in 2020. Just one year later he was playing in Qatar.
Unless they have a strong strength of character, the attention and pressure that comes with shining on the big stage can prove to be the undoing of a player.
Beyond the Pitch
Making a mark in an international tournament sends a player’s popularity skyrocketing, and many businesses will do whatever they can to capitalise on that.
Just hours after 17-year-old Lamine Yamal lifted the European Championship trophy with Spain and Lionel Messi clinched the Copa America with Argentina, Adidas – which sponsors both players – used the success of “the GOAT and the new kid on the block” to promote their F50 football boots.
Had Yamal not signed a contract with Adidas shortly before the tournament, he would undoubtedly be contemplating offers from a host of suitors after his performances in Germany. Still, Euro 2024 has turned him into a name that even the most casual of football fans will recognise; with the right attitude, he’ll be able to keep delivering at that level and not fall away like many others before him.
