With the dust settling on a manic 2026 summer transfer window, it’s clear for all to see which clubs prospered, and which didn’t.
You’ve heard all about the major deals, the winners and losers, and the late drama that captivated the watching world on deadline day. But what about the other, more under-the-radar stories that shaped the window?
Welcome to our alternative awards, where we hand out eight off-beat trophies to those who didn’t quite make the spotlight.
Unluckiest player: Érik Lira, Cruz Azul
You know the story by now: Folarin Balogun’s midnight change of heart on a €40 million switch to Everton on deadline day left a series of clubs and players hanging. It will go down as one of the great U-turns in transfer window history.
But spare a thought for the real collateral damage here: Not Monaco, not Lamine Camara (whose prospective €55 million move to Chelsea was affected) and not even Everton striker Thierno Barry (who is the only senior striker at the club, and whose burden now looks tremendous) … it’s Érik Lira.
He was set for a move to Monaco, set for his big break into European football at age 26, but could not seal the deal from Mexican side Cruz Azul. Why? Ligue 1 clubs only have a limited number of non-EU squad spots to dish out, Monaco’s are all filled up, and Balogun was supposed to vacate the one Lira was set to take.
The Mexican has received an apology from the Principality club, but it had to hurt.
Left on the shelf: Julián Álvarez, Atlético Madrid
What a whirlwind summer it was for Álvarez. As if losing a World Cup final with Argentina wasn’t traumatic enough, he returned to club duties with Atlético Madrid amid a maelstrom of transfer speculation.
Real Madrid made a €150 million bid, Barcelona publicly wooed him and made a bid of €100 million, while Arsenal worked quietly in the background, always probing to see if there was a deal to be done. It resulted in high drama all summer, with Atleti ultimately reporting Barça to the Spanish football federation for an improper pursuit of the player.
Of course, limit any amount of sympathy you might have for Álvarez here, as he did little to deter the Blaugranain their quest for his signature; in fact, he downright encouraged them. But no move materialized, with Atlético claiming even a €200 million offer would not suffice.
Clearly, this had become less a business case and more a point of principle for the capital club, and it left Álvarez caught in the middle, being booed by his own fans while sitting on the bench during the opening games of the season.
It is very, very rare for a world-class player to be pursued by three different elite teams over the course of a window and not end up moving. Unfortunately for Atleti, this saga is far from over — the January transfer window opens in 120 days.
Hipster’s choice: Fiorentina
You can’t really say Fiorentina had the best summer window, but you could certainly count it among the most intriguing. Their incoming list lacks stardust, but is packed full of “if you know, you know” quality, making it the ultimate hipster’s choice.
Among the 15 players brought in were:
– Christ Inao Oulaï, a diminutive, technically excellent midfielder who excelled for the Ivory Coast during the World Cup.
– Arthur Atta, a tall, box-to-box central midfielder who is similar in style to Scott McTominay and whom most of Italy had been keeping an eye on.
– Franco Mastantuono, one of Real Madrid’s brilliant young attacking talents, loaned for the season.
– Beto, a striker who never quite caught fire at Everton, but impressed greatly at Udinese before that.
– Pedro Gonçalves, a wicked, maverick No. 10 who stepped into Bruno Fernandes’ shoes at Sporting CP once he’d moved to Manchester United.
– Wilfried Gnonto, a tricky winger who has lost his way lately, but possesses so much talent.
Will Fiorentina manager Fabio Grosso manage to weave it all together? It’s a tall order, given 15 players joined the club and over 20 departed in one form or another; that’s a shakeup beyond the levels of even Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa this summer. But if he’s successful, you’ll no doubt be hearing plenty about it.
Atlas award: Hull City
https://x.com/hashtag/HullCity
Newly promoted Premier League club Hull City really leaned into the fun side of the summer window.
Tasked with the need to sign almost an entirely new XI to have any hope of competing at the top level, club owner Acun Ilicali launched an all-out offensive on the market, splashing over £100 million on new signings, and had a lot of fun teasing them on social media to the fans.
Ilicali regularly posted cryptic updates on X, using a combination of world flags and percentages to show how close they were to signing certain players. The exercise truly underlined the breadth of their scouting remit, as flags from all over the world featured in those posts.
Perhaps we should call them the ‘Hull-em Globe Trotters’ this season.
Best bargain hunters: Inter Milan
It was fascinating to watch two very different dynamics unfold at San Siro this summer, as AC Milan splashed the cash to support new manager Rúben Amorim, while Inter kept to a much stricter budget.
That strategy was made easier for the Nerazzurrito stick to by the fact they managed to identify an incredible value-for-money seam in the market: Signing disgruntled English players.
Center back John Stones was the first to arrive on a free transfer, fresh from his contract expiring at Manchester City. Then came full back Djed Spence for an initial €30 million from Spurs, which felt ridiculously cheap considering his impressive performances at the World Cup. And finally, midfielder Curtis Jones joined from Liverpool for €35 million, which once again felt like a snip compared to some of the other fees spent to sign central midfielders.
Had Spence and Jones joined other Premier League clubs their transfers would almost certainly would have cost more, but much to Spurs and Liverpool’s dismay, either the bids from England never came, or the lure of playing for the Italian champions in Milan meant they ruled out any other possibilities.
Whatever the reasons, Inter won’t care. They picked up three excellent players on the cheap ahead of their title defense.
Biggest issue: Marseille
Marseille didn’t sign a single new player this summer. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
We’re used to seeing clubs abstain from the treacherous January transfer window, but the summer one? What on earth?
(OK, technically speaking, they signed three — Timothy Weah, Facundo Medina and Hamed Traoré — but all of them were already at the club on loan with obligations to sign permanently attached. Outside the trio, no new faces arrived, and two of them have already moved on!)
Meanwhile, talent steadily drained out of the club: Mason Greenwood to Fenerbahçe, Leonardo Balerdi to Roma, Quinten Timber to Crystal Palace, Gerónimo Rulli to Manchester City, and more.
The incoming balance sheet looks amazing … but the squad? Not so much. All of this has left them with just nine players with a Transfermarkt value of more than €5 million — a crude way to measure squad quality, sure, but in this case paints a pretty clear picture.
It’s reported that the reason for this host of exits is that Marseille owner Frank McCourt wants to sell the club and is trying to recoup as much money as possible. That’s a dangerous game, though; if they sink too far, the club will be worth substantially less in potential investors’ eyes.
Biggest lifestyle switch: Luca Bombino
Every single transfer window, thousands of footballers uproot their entire lives in search of progression within the game. Depending on their age, they could be leaving home for the first time, switching continents, entering vastly different cultures or changing their kids’ schools.
Some switches are more drastic than others, though, and some paths have become well worn. For example, Scandina and hone their talent, while Saudi Arabia has become a big payday for European stars who want a more relaxed life
Over the last year or so, a new path has opened up: MLS to the English Championship. Middlesbrough have been the chief players in this market, signing U.S. internationals Aidan Morris, Sebastian Berhalter and Max Arfsten, and now Stoke City have joined the party too, sealing deals for U.S. U20 left back Bombino (from San Diego FC) and senior midfielder Jack McGlynn (from Houston Dynamo).
It’s that Bombino transfer that really catches the eye, though. It says a lot about what a young footballer is willing to sacrifice to make it to the top if they’re willing to trade a life in the California sun of San Diego for Stoke-on-Trent. It will be an eye-opening culture shock.
Data darling: Zadok Yohanna, Brighton & Hove Albion
When a teenager with just 1,055 senior minutes of Swedish football under their belt joins Brighton for £21.5 million, sit up and take notice. This summer, that was Yohanna.
When this happens, it’s usually because someone in the club’s data department has flagged the player as a prospect; they’ll have registered as a major outlier in a handful of metrics and set off the alarms for anyone smart enough to be looking.
“When you have a 19-year-old who is in the top 20% in the league for carries, line-breaking carries and cutbacks, and in the top 2% for dribbling, that catches the eye,” Analytics FC’s Alex Stewart said. “Also, AIK is a very professional club, so you know the player is coming from an elite environment and will be well prepared for high level football.”
Brighton have long mastered the art of finding players before anyone else, but as others wise up and begin to fish in the same pools, they’ve had to start moving earlier and earlier to sign up these prospects. That’s how Yohanna, off the back of just two goals and 1,055 minutes, broke the Swedish league transfer record.
Source: www.espn.com
