As a New York City native, Folarin Balogun had options to play either for England, Nigeria, or the United States, and he was in the latter country for the international break to weigh his options.
The 21-year-old striker has impressed while on loan with Reims from Arsenal this season, scoring 19 goals to place him among the top five scorers in the French Ligue 1. He is in good company, including Kylian Mbappe, Alexandre Lacazette, and Jonathan David.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to convince English coach Gareth Southgate to call him up and secure his international career. Instead, the Three Lions boss said that Balogun had never played in the Premier League before, which was the main reason why he wasn’t selected.
Why did Folarin Balogun ditch England in order to represent USMNT?
As a result, the Arsenal forward has decided to play for the United States national team. The Athletic claims that the striker’s transfer from the English national team to the American one has been accepted by FIFA.
It took some cryptic Instagram postings, some social media super-sleuthing from a few dedicated USMNT supporters, an Orlando Magic game, a New York Yankees game, a chat with U.S. Soccer, and eventually, a promotional video to announce Balogun’s choice.
Eric Wynalda, a former star for the USMNT, thinks England’s arrogance over Balogun has come back to bite them: “Gareth Southgate has certainly made some missteps here with his comments about the talented American playing in France,” he told The Action Network.
“Southgate said: ‘We can’t just hand out international opportunities to a player simply because we don’t want them to play for somebody else’. Whoops – If he could take that one back now I think he would. Southgate has completely underestimated Folarin’s ability and tried to shrug it off. Sorry, but there are times where English arrogance needs to be illuminated and this is one of them.”
