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Folarin Balogun scored two goals against Paraguay.
IMAGO/Anadolu Agency
Folarin Balogun has played for various English youth teams, and now the Monaco striker has become a hero for the U.S.
After the US men’s national team’s biggest World Cup win and a convincing opening match, two-goal scorer Folarin Balogun quickly set his sights on the ultimate goal at this World Cup: the title. The co-hosts won their opener against Paraguay 4-1 and immediately established themselves as favorites in Group D.
With two goals, Balogun played a decisive role in the team’s impressive debut performance and then recalled the words of his coach, Mauricio Pochettino: “He’s said it often: Why not us? We have to believe in it. If you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t achieve anything,” said the striker. “It’s a dream. That was a magical night.”
The 24-year-old came within a hair’s breadth of ending up with another World Cup participant. Balogun, who came up through Arsenal’s youth ranks, once played 13 games for the English U21 national team, scoring 7 goals.
But thanks to a concerned airline employee, he now plays for the U.S., as reported by the “Telegraph.” Balogun was still in his mother Florence’s womb when she traveled to New York for a short trip in 2001 while seven months pregnant. Only the return trip didn’t go as planned, as the airline refused to let her fly because of the size of her belly, which, in her own words, was “huge.”
And so it came to pass that Folarin was ultimately born in Brooklyn rather than London and spent the first months of his life there in the two-room apartment of Florence’s sister-in-law, before mother and child—Folarin was now six months old—were deemed healthy enough for the flight home. With a U.S. passport for the baby in hand.
Balogun couldn’t break into the starting lineup at Arsenal; after stints at Middlesbrough and Stade Reims, he joined AS Monaco in 2023. That same year, he made his debut for the U.S. national team, for which he has since played 28 international matches (11 goals). And now, under the watchful eyes of Tom Cruise and David Beckham, he emerged as the match-winner in front of an official crowd of 70,492.
“That was the best first half ever by a men’s national team at the World Cup level. Complete dominance. It doesn’t get any better than that,” said former national team player Alexi Lalas at halftime on FOX.
“That was definitely a statement. Three goals in the first half, in the opening match. It definitely felt like a real statement,” said Balogun. “The U.S. is putting on its best World Cup performance to date, with Folarin Balogun crushing Paraguay—after Donald Trump decided NOT to attend,” commented the British “Daily Mail” on the third co-host’s opener. The next opponent is Australia in Seattle.
