The 1994 World Cup has ended. Brazil won the final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, beating Italy in a scoreless final when Roberto Baggio lifted the ball high over the crossbar.
The tournament drew huge crowds in the United States, with an average attendance of 68,991 (a record until the most recent World Cup in Qatar). I watched the best players in the world play.
Several Premier League managers and scouts would have been part of the crowd. That’s because just a few days after the tournament ended, many players who had played for their country signed contracts with Premier League clubs.
Nottingham Forest became the first club to sign a foreign player at the World Cup, spending £2.5m on Dutch winger Brian Roy in mid-July. He played in all of Netherlands’ matches in the tournament and scored the winner in the final group match against Morocco.
Tottenham Hotspur next dipped their toes into the overseas transfer market and signed Romanian star Ilie Dumistrescu from Steau Bucharest. The Romanian team exceeded all expectations at the summer tournament, reaching the semifinals for the first time before losing to Italy.
Two days after Osi Ardiles revealed Ilier Dumitrescu to the media, Tottenham announced a major transfer coup. Germany’s Jurgen Klinsmann has decided to play England, joining the north London club for just £2 million from Monaco.
The second Romanian international joined Tottenham in the summer, joining defender Gheorghe Popescu from PSV Eindhoven. Dan Petrescu becomes the third Romanian to join the Premier League after joining Sheffield Wednesday from Italian side Genoa.
Coventry City tried to convince American Alexei Lalas to join the team in the last week of July, but the bearded defender decided to join Padua. On August 8, the Sky Blues signed another US international with Cobi Jones crossing the Atlantic.
Belgian defender Philippe Albert has signed for Newcastle United after the Tynesides agreed a fee of £2.6m for Anderlecht’s services. He joins Swiss right-back Marc Hottiger, who has appeared in all four of Switzerland’s games in the United States.
Arsenal manager George Graham has decided to spend £1.8million on Swedish midfielder Stefan Schwarz. It was the second World Cup in succession that Scotland had brought in a Swedish midfielder since Anders Limpar joined the Highbury club four years ago at the biggest international tournament in world football.
Two-time champions Manchester United have failed to catch the World Cup bug, with manager Alex Ferguson deciding his only signing of the summer will be England defender David May for £1.4 million from rivals Blackburn Rovers.
Rovers then used this fee to sign Norwich City striker Chris Sutton for a British record £5 million later this month.
With all these foreign signings flowing into the Premier League, the British game has become more global. This summer marked the beginning of player recruitment on the continent and it was a very exciting time. Now the British game has changed forever.
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