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Transfer deadline day: 10 lingering questions after European window slams shut
The summer transfer window slammed shut across to most of Europe's top leagues on Friday, with a flurry of action, as usual, right up until the clock struck midnight (6 p.m. ET in the U.S.).
Here are 10 questions now that Silly Season is now officially on hiatus until January.
Will Lionel Messi's Miami move open the floodgates for MLS?
GOAT or not, few could've foreseen just how dominant the 36-year-old Messi would be after arriving in South Florida from Paris Saint-Germain. Along with former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, Messi transformed Inter Miami overnight, turning the worst team in MLS into one of the best. Miami is unbeaten in 10 games since Messi signed on a free transfer in July. He's scored 11 goals already and helped the Herons win the Leagues Cup last month and qualify for the Sept. 27 U.S. Open Cup final.
Lionel Messi scores his 10th goal in seven matches for Inter Miami, which went on to win the Leagues Cup title on PKs
There's only one Messi, of course. It remains to be seen how long he can keep making magic on a nightly basis. But even if Miami don't make the playoffs, the instant impact he, Alba and Busquets have made could move other MLS owners to push for significantly increased spending on proven top-end talent. If that ends up happening, it would represent an even bigger accomplishment than anything Messi can do with his feet.
How much will Manchester City miss İlkay Gündoğan?
The German midfielder was City's low-key best player as the Sky Blues finally won the UEFA Champions League for the first time — and picked up yet another English Premier League crown, plus an FA Cup title, too — last season.
Nobody is going to feel sorry for Pep Guardiola, who has more than enough talent on his roster to cover the loss of Gündoğan, who joined Barcelona in July on a free transfer. Indeed, the club added ex-Chelsea pivot Mateo Kovačić before the window even opened and then dropped almost $68 million on Deadline Day to pry Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes from Wolves. City also lost Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and Cole Palmer, the latter of whom joined Chelsea on Friday for $54 million. But it hasn't hurt them much yet, with Guardiola's side starting the new Prem campaign a perfect 3-0.
Can Christian Pulisic continue to shine for AC Milan?
While Pulisic didn't score in Friday's 2-1 win over Roma after tallying in his first two Serie A games for the Rossoneri, he still could end up being one of the bargains of this window following his sale by Chelsea in July for up to $24 million including incentives.
That price was cut-rate compared to the $65 million the Blues paid Borussia Dortmund for the American in 2019. But the early returns for the 24-year-old in Italy suggest that he's finally at a club where he's a key part of the coach's attacking plans. If he can stay healthy — a significant "if" given his lengthy injury history — Pulisic could have a monster season for a Milan side hoping to compete both for the Scudetto and the Champions League titles next spring.
Is Harry Kane the missing piece for Bayern Munich?
Bayern claimed its 11th straight German Bundesliga title in 2022-23. But for a club that expects to win every competition it enters, a third consecutive year without a Champions League title was a failure.
Enter Kane, who left his longtime home, Tottenham Hotspur, for a chance to win the most prestigious trophy in club soccer. England's all-time top scorer didn't come cheap: Bayern paid more than $100 million for his services. But if he fills the void created by Robert Lewandowski's departure to Barca a year ago and leads Bayern back to the European summit, he'll have been worth every cent.
Will Chelsea's lavish spending pay off this time?
The Blues were the worst team money could buy last season, when the 2021 Champions League winners finished an astonishing 12th in England's top division despite a roster underwritten by almost $1 billion in transfer fees since American Todd Boehly's Clearlake Capital took ownership of the London club last year.
A summer fire sale ridded Chelsea of some of those expensive contracts, but the deep-pocketed recruiting hasn't stopped: the Blues added City's Palmer on Deadline Day, Brighton's Moises Caicedo (for an English record fee of $146 million) in August and several others this summer. Time will tell if they'll be worth it in a way their predecessors weren't.
Can less be more for Barcelona?
How's this for crazy: Barca spent less than $7 million on new players this window. Their most important signing, Gündoğan, arrived on a free transfer from Man City. (Xavi's team also landed Atletico Madrid's Joao Felix, Man City's Joao Cancelo and LAFC's Mamadou Fall on loan at the 11th hour Friday.)
That's a far cry from the days when the suits at the Camp Nou were splashing outrageous sums on the likes of Antoine Griezmann ($130 million in 2019) or even Ferran Torres ($70 million last year).
Out the door went not just Alba and Busquets but also Ousmane Dembélé, who returned to his native France with PSG for $54 million, 20-year-old forward Ansu Fati (on loan to England's Brighton), and several others. But it could be addition by subtraction for a squad that now belongs largely to the next generation of homegrown Blaugrana stars.
What can Folarin Balogun do for an encore in France?
The American striker was the most prolific forward 21 years old or younger in Europe's Top 5 leagues last season, when he scored 21 times for Reims on loan from Premier runner-up Arsenal.
Now Balogun is back in Ligue 1, with Monaco having sent the Gunners close to $50 million for his services — the second-richest transfer fee ever paid for a U.S. national team player. For that price he'll be expected to light up the French league again and help get Monaco back into the Champions League, which the club missed out on qualifying for last season for the first time since 2020.
Can Jude Bellingham put Real Madrid back on top?
It was bad enough for Real Madrid that they failed to win both La Liga and the Champions League last season. Finishing second to hated rival Barcelona in Spain's top flight by a whopping 10 points? For the most decorated European club ever, that simply can't happen again.
It's one reason why Real was determined to ink Bellingham, the dynamic 20-year-old English midfield prodigy, from Borussia Dortmund this summer for well over $100 million with add-ons. It's been a shrewd investment so far: Madrid sits atop La Liga and Bellingham has four goals in three games, all wins.
Will Romelu Lukaku find a home in Rome?
Lukaku has scored plenty in Italy previously, with Inter Milan. He's also been successful before under Jose Mourinho, who signed him for Chelsea when the massive striker was a teenager, and then again later on when Mourinho was the manager of Manchester United.
Now the pair are reunited in Serie A, with Chelsea — which reacquired the Belgian a couple years back — agreeing to loan Lukaku to Roma this season. After years of bouncing between Italy and England, could this be the perfect fit for the 30-year-old? If yes, look for Roma to consider retaining Lukaku on a permanent deal even if the loan arrangement doesn't include an option to buy.
Which stars will the Saudi League lure next?
One of the big news stories on Deadline Day was a deal that didn't happen: Liverpool rejected an almost $200 bid from Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad, which had already snared Karim Benzema (from Real Madrid), Fabinho (Liverpool) and N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea) earlier in the window.
Those weren't the only stars to ditch Europe for the kingdom's limitless riches over the last two months, Neymar and Sadio Mané among them. They won't be the last, perhaps not even this summer: while European clubs' rosters are now all but set, the Saudi League allows incoming transfers all the way until Sept. 7.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter.
