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With the eyes of the world on them, U.S. men’s national team players enjoyed a mixed bag of a home World Cup this summer. There were the highs against Paraguay, Australia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the sobering low of elimination vs. Belgium; there were highlight-reel goals scored by Gio Reyna and Sebastian Berhalter and the blooper-reel concessions in that last-16 ouster. Top star Christian Pulisic was electric for the first 45 minutes of the tournament, then was plagued by injuries and scrutiny.

As it relates to the U.S. team, the European summer transfer window reflected some of that same mixed-bag vibe. No, performances at the World Cup did not lead directly to any blockbuster U.S. transfers to Champions League contenders. The likes of Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Ricardo Pepi, Sergiño Dest, Antonee Robinson and Folarin Balogun (plenty more on him and the transfer saga that resulted in a U-turn back to Monaco instead of a move to Everton below) all wound up staying put.

And in terms of U.S. players who did make notable moves overseas, the list isn’t exactly a who’s-who of top-line talent landing at marquee clubs. Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach to Strasbourg) and Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps to Middlesbrough) were the highest-profile World Cup players to earn transfers, while nascent U.S. internationals Zavier Gozo (Real Salt Lake to Crystal Palace), Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo to Stoke City), Cole Campbell (Dortmund to Elversberg) and Rokas Pukstas (Hajduk Split to Middlesbrough) were among others to change teams.

The summer transfer window is now closed across most of Europe, so we took the opportunity to assess it from a USMNT lens, with the first camp of the 2030 World Cup cycle a few weeks on the horizon and the spotlight of this summer’s home World Cup in the rear view:

Which completed USMNT summer transfer was the most important one?

Henry Bushnell: Reyna to Strasbourg. Ligue 1 is a much better fit for him than the Bundesliga was. He’s already starting and impacting games, and I still believe that, somewhere in his 23-year-old body, he has some of the potential he flashed as a teen at Dortmund.

Paul Tenorio: Gozo to Crystal Palace. The U.S. needs more difference makers, and it needs them growing and developing at the highest levels. No one in the pool gets me as excited for their potential as Gozo, and he’s now playing in an environment that raises his ceiling.

Felipe Cardenas: Slim pickings to be honest. Gozo made the most newsworthy move and it didn’t surprise anybody. He’s 19 and can run for days. Gozo was in line to be the next MLS-based American to join a big-five league. Let’s see how he adjusts.

Tom Bogert: Gozo. The extremely talented teenager leaves Real Salt Lake for Crystal Palace and the Premier League. He’s already deserving of a call up to the senior national team, but if he plays basically at all at his new club, that cements it. How high is his ceiling?

Which player who stayed put were you hoping to see move?

Bushnell: Balogun. He needed a bigger stage than Monaco’s. To go from World Cup stardom back to a league that very few Americans watch, and to a club that averages less than 10,000 fans per game, and to a season in the UEFA Conference League, will be tremendously disappointing.

Tenorio: It’s definitely Balogun. It would have been great to see him make the jump to the Premier League or to a high-level Champions League club.

Cardenas: Antonee Robinson to Manchester United made some sense to me. United need a better left fullback, and Robinson, despite his recent injury history, would present as an upgrade to Luke Shaw.

Bogert: It’s the boring answer but it is very obviously Balogun. All summer he was expected to move, that was the plan both for Balogun and Monaco. A deadline day fiasco ended with him leaving Everton’s training ground without signing the contract, after both clubs had agreed.

Yunus Musah (80) has new life at AC Milan under coach Ruben Amorim (Marco Luzzani / Getty Images)

Which player benefitted most from not making a move?

Bushnell: I’m not sure anybody benefitted, because I’m not sure any potential moves were on the table that would have been mistakes. (I’ll use this space instead to say that I don’t love Gozo’s move to Palace. He was definitely ready for a next step, but I’m not sure a potential relegation battle at a chaotic Premier League club was the right step.)

Tenorio: It could end up being Yunus Musah if he continues to play at AC Milan. The 23-year-old American midfielder needed to find a way to gain his confidence back, and if he is able to push himself back on the field at a club like Milan, it might be his best path back to the national team under Mauricio Pochettino.

Cardenas: The only person at U.S. Soccer who benefitted from staying put was Pochettino.

Bogert: Christian Pulisic. There were some calls from NYCFC about the USMNT attacker, but it’s not quite time for him to come to MLS. I still firmly believe he’ll excel in Ruben Amorim’s system at AC Milan. He is basically under contract for two years — one year guaranteed plus a one-year club option — so if it works out this season or not, he’ll have more leverage next summer over his future if he is to leave.

What are your thoughts on the Balogun saga and what it means for his season outlook?

Bushnell: I think he and people around him — including his new agent, Jorge Mendes, and whoever advised him to sign with Mendes — probably overestimated how much he could parlay his World Cup fame into a big payday at a big club. Monaco probably overestimated that too. That’s why all parties were scrambling ahead of deadline day, and why they left themselves susceptible to this unpalatable outcome. The best thing Balogun can do now is re-find his form from last spring and the summer, and try to earn a move in January or next summer.

Tenorio: I admire Balogun’s willingness to advocate and bet on himself. Feeling like Everton tried to leverage the medical against him to negotiate a better fee clearly pushed him away from the deal. Balogun surely is doing that with the belief that he’ll continue his goal-scoring ways in France and that a transfer will be there in the winter window or next summer. He’ll need to score at the same pace as he did at the end of last season if he wants the type of move that looked possible coming out of the World Cup.

Cardenas: He’s not hurting at Monaco. The club will be in contention for a top-four finish and he’ll likely continue to score goals. His move back to the Premier League didn’t materialize, but another door, at a bigger club (hello, Tottenham), could open sooner than later. Balogun didn’t hurt his stock or his public image by walking away from Everton, a club that fumbled its way through another transfer window.

Bogert: Really odd. I figured this would have been wrapped up by August 1 given the obvious fit in the Premier League (his quality, the money from England both for player and Monaco). It kept dragging on, perhaps, as Henry said, because of overestimations of the market from both parties.

For as good as Balogun was in his first few games at the World Cup, unfortunately the two events fans will most associate him with will be his red card suspension controversially being lifted and the failed move to Everton rather than anything he has achieved on the field. And that’s a shame.

Folarin Balogun’s eventful summer continued, but did not result in a move to Everton. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Based on expectations, was this an underwhelming post-World Cup transfer window for the USMNT?

Bushnell: Beyond Balogun, not really. In this era of ubiquitous data and video, clubs don’t get seduced by small samples in a spotlight, so the “World Cup bounce” doesn’t really exist anymore. And every other USMNT player, at this point, is employed by a club at or near their level. So I didn’t expect it to be a summer full of transfer activity.

Tenorio: I felt like this was exactly the type of window I expected. You see less-heralded or less-experienced players leveling up (Gozo, Berhalter, Max Arfsten, McGlynn), a few players finding a path to minutes (Reyna, Damion Downs, Diego Kochen) and then one big swing and miss with Balogun. Nothing truly surprising considering where contract statuses stood with a lot of the starting group from this summer.

Cardenas: Again, the U.S. team wasn’t littered with players who were attractive to major European clubs. And as Paul notes, a lot of the players were under contract. However, Pulisic squandered a huge opportunity at the World Cup to prove that he’s a top-25 player in the world. It was a long shot, but an impressive tournament from Pulisic could’ve led to a high-profile move away from Milan.

Bogert: These things go in cycles. I wouldn’t call it an underwhelming summer window because the state of where most of the key players were. Pulisc at Milan, Chris Richards at Crystal Palace, Weston McKennie at Juventus … those situations are mostly good. Definitely more good than bad. Sure, Balogun should have moved, but even Ricardo Pepi and Sergiño Dest staying at PSV is not a bad thing.