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“The goal he scored in the first game, against Paraguay, when he cut in on his right and bent it in, that’s something Flo has been perfecting for a long time. He’s been doing that since a very young age.”
Kevin Betsy is regaling The Athletic with his memories of USMNT striker Folarin Balogun, having worked with him when head coach of Arsenal’s under-23s and in the England youth setup.
Balogun, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in east London, has been the standout performer for Mauricio Pochettino’s side from their first game at the World Cup, scoring two goals in an emphatic 4-1 win against Paraguay. He was instrumental again in helping the United States beat Australia and secure safe passage to the knockouts, then scored the opening goal of their round-of-32 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Then came the moment that has defined his World Cup.
Balogun was sent off after a VAR review for a dangerous challenge, only for FIFA to suspend his subsequent ban following an intervention involving U.S. President Donald Trump, government officials, U.S. Soccer, and an extensive legal team.
It is the latest chapter in the 25-year-old’s extraordinary story.
Balogun was only born in the U.S. when his mother, Florence, was prevented from flying home because she was heavily pregnant.
After his birth, mother and baby stayed in Brooklyn for nearly two months, before making the trip back to London, ESPN reported.
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Balogun represented England at youth level but opted to play for the USMNT in May 2023, scoring his first goal a month later.
He had joined Arsenal aged 10 but The Athletic has been told that only happened after a second trial, having been released midway through his first. He was prolific at youth level but struggled to establish himself as a regular starter.
He went out on two loans, first to Middlesbrough, a challenging spell, and then to Reims, in France, where he flourished, before finding his feet at Monaco.
From the Wanstead Flats park pitches to showcasing his skills on the biggest stage, The Athletic spoke to Balogun’s former coaches and team-mates to find out about his route to the World Cup and the start of a story that is now dominating this tournament.
It all started for Balogun at Aldersbrook Athletic, his local team in east London, where he was coached by Peter Hucker, the former Oxford United goalkeeper.
“He was far too good for what we do,” he tells The Athletic. “You can’t coach intelligence. At such young ages, that’s what stands out a mile — not because they can beat everybody or have the best shot, but because of their intelligence when they’re playing, they’re way ahead of everybody else. Most kids who think they’re Pele will try to score 100 goals every game, the good players are never like that and he wasn’t like that.”
Nowadays, Balogun, a centre-forward, is renowned for his finishing prowess, but he played further back for Aldersbrook.
“I started at a club called Aldersbrook in East London when I was six or seven. I played in the local team with my classmates,” he told Ligue 1’s official site in a previous interview. “We had matches every Sunday and at that time, I was playing as a central defender. I was very fast and I was doing well with the ball, so my coach put me there.”
His performances for Aldersbrook put him on Arsenal’s radar, but two sources described how he was initially let go after three weeks.
He was then spotted playing in a district match by scout Alan Knowles, who also brought Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe to the club. He insisted Arsenal bring him back in for a second trial. After six weeks, the 10-year-old Balogun signed up. In a previous interview with Arsenal’s website, Balogun revealed he came close to joining Tottenham Hotspur, their north London rivals, where he had also been on trial.
Progressing through the ranks at Arsenal, Balogun became known for his goalscoring exploits in the academy. He scored 25 times in 19 appearances for Arsenal’s under-18s when they won the Under-18 Premier League South title in 2018-19. Balogun signed his first professional contract in February 2019, before agreeing to a four-year deal in April 2021.
Folarin Balogun in action for Arsenal’s youth team in 2017 (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Stepping up to Arsenal’s under-23 side, he continued to score goals freely, earning a promotion to the first team under Mikel Arteta. After scoring two goals in five substitute appearances in the Europa League in the 2020-21 campaign, he was rewarded with a first Premier League start, in Arsenal’s 2021-22 opener at Brentford.
It was a tough game for Arsenal, losing 2-0 to Thomas Frank’s side.
“About four weeks later, Mikel asked if Flo and Eddie Nketiah could get some minutes,” Betsy recalls. “We played Manchester United at home. They were both excellent, Flo scored twice and enjoyed the game.
“Flo then asked Mikel if he could play a couple more games to keep his match fitness up. I ended up making him captain as I thought it was good for his development from a leadership and communication perspective for him to lead the group.”
Balogun continued to train with Arsenal’s first team, but was unable to cement a regular starting position, while he scored 13 goals in 11 games for their under-23 side.
Betsy says: “It got to January and it was like, ‘What’s the next step for Flo’s development?’. He needed to go out and play first-team football and a loan was agreed with Middlesbrough.”
At Middlesbrough, forward Duncan Watmore was immediately struck by Balogun’s natural ability.
“His finishing was outrageous, right foot, left foot, he was clinical,” Watmore tells The Athletic. “There’s something you can’t really teach or describe, how they find the right position at the right time and then choose the right type of finish because there are loads of different types of finishes. And choosing the right one at the right time is crucial.”
Despite that, however, Balogun found it hard to break into the Middlesbrough team in a notoriously tough division. He registered three goals and three assists in 18 appearances.
“These things just take time, and the Championship is quite a ruthless league at that age,” Watmore adds. “But it wasn’t any kind of reflection on his ability because you could tell what a good player he was. There were no issues with his character or application. Not many people come in as a youngster and rip up the Championship.”
On a flight to one away game, Watmore remembers Balogun reading a book on mentality and the psychology of sport.
“That was something that stood out,” Watmore says. “If you combine his natural talent and self-assuredness with that ability to work on the mental side of the game, it doesn’t really surprise me the success he’s having.
“I always like to see young, talented players who you’ve played with go on and take it to the next level because it is not easy to deliver on your talent, it’s really not, and he’s doing that.”
It was at the end of his time at Middlesbrough and before his second loan, at Reims in Ligue 1, that Balogun linked up with Saul Isaksson-Hurst, an individual skills coach.
“He came to me and said, ‘Look, Saul, I want to do some extra work on a few things’, so we did a real intense pre-season, a pre-pre-season if you like,” Isaksson-Hurst tells The Athletic.
Folarin Balogun has worked with individual skills coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst (Saul Isaksson-Hurst)
“My job is to figure out the game-changing moments of that player’s position and then construct the sessions around that,” he says. “So obviously lots of shooting and finishing with both feet, lots of different angles, lots of running beyond.”
Isaksson-Hurst has continued to work with Balogun, including sessions last summer when the focus was on building momentum for the World Cup.
“He’s a very serious and focused guy,” he says. “It’s get there and ‘let’s work’. He aspires to be one of the best No 9s in world football, so everything goes towards that.”
Betsy also remembers that self-driven mindset and Balogun’s determination to improve himself.
“He always wanted to do extras, he would stay and do 20- or 30-minute shooting extras, he would do that with the first team, with the under-23s,” he recalls. “His finishing was second to none, off both sides. That’s no coincidence, that’s through his hard work and dedication to the craft. He was the same in the gym and how he looks after his body. Those things were evident from working closely with him.”
Folarin Balogun transfer updates, World Cup Tracker and the Doku debate
After his spell at Middlesbrough, Balogun took the bold step of moving abroad, joining Reims, in France.
Playing under English manager Will Still for much of that campaign, Balogun excelled, scoring 21 Ligue 1 goals in 37 appearances.
In a previous interview with the Daily Mail, he admitted to feeling anxious when he first moved, but said that adjusting to a new country, culture and language had helped him mature.
It was after his season with Reims that Balogun ultimately decided to represent the country of his birth, making the switch in May 2023.
In a previous article in The Athletic, Balogun talked about how he felt the love from the U.S. supporters, while he was also taken out for dinner by some of the national team’s star players, including Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie.
“I don’t believe things happened by luck,” his mother Florence told ESPN in a previous interview. “To have gone to America and to have had him there, it is just something that has really stuck with me. Even when he wasn’t thinking of making an international decision, I’d already made up my mind that he is going to play for America.”
How USMNT won Balogun’s World Cup commitment
Balogun’s impressive debut season in Ligue 1 put the striker on the radar of some of Europe’s top clubs, but he chose to remain in France, signing for Monaco in August 2023 in a deal worth €40million (£34.4m; $43.4m) after add-ons. Arsenal inserted a 17.5 per cent sell-on clause into the deal. He picked the brains of Arsenal’s great striker Thierry Henry, who started out at Monaco, before making the switch.
At Monaco, Balogun scored seven Ligue 1 goals in his first season, and also missed four penalties, while his second was disrupted by an injury to his shoulder. However, he finished last campaign strongly, scoring 10 goals in 10 games, including a sumptuous chipped finish against Marseille in April.
Balogun’s experience of the World Cup on United States soil is not the first time he has played in a home international tournament.
He represented the USMNT at the 2024 Copa America and he also appeared for England’s under-17s in their home 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship.
One of his coaches during that time was Ian Foster, with Steve Cooper the head coach.
“I always thought Flo was ruthless in the box, he had a natural ability to find those positions where he could score,” Foster tells The Athletic.
“He was technically outstanding, very good with his back to goal, trustworthy when you went into the third line, he could link the play well. Those little darting runs when the ball goes wide to get across people, I always really liked that from him. He always had that threat.
“If you have creative players in your team, which we did with England when he played, and the U.S. certainly have that in the final third, he’s got a chance to score goals.”
Foster describes Balogun as operating “like a nine and a half”, as he can drop into pockets of space and play between the lines, rather than being a traditional No 9 or No 10.
In that England Under-17 side, Balogun lined up alongside fellow Arsenal academy graduates Bukayo Saka, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Tyreece John-Jules and Trae Coyle.
“I always found Flo to be really good fun, he always had a smile on his face, I always felt like he was a really humble kid,” Foster says. “He was really energetic and brought a lot of character into the environment.”
One of the other moments that sticks in Foster’s memory was Balogun’s penalty miss in the semi-final of that tournament, as England lost to the Netherlands in a shootout.
“It’s sad to reflect on the penalty but what I do remember is how brave he was, and how the boys got around him,” Foster recalls. “I hope it stands him in good stead if his team does go to penalties in the knockout phases. I’ve got no doubt he’s brave enough to stand up and perhaps that will just help him a wee bit.
“That’s what the journey is for, to help them when they get to senior football.”
Additional reporting by Amelie Claydon
