Folarin Jerry Balogun (born 3 July 2001) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a striker for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

, on loan from club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Born in the United States, he represents England at youth international level.

Early life

Balogun was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and emigrated to England when he was two years old, growing up in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. His parents were born in Nigeria. Balogun is often referred to by his nickname of 'Flo', coined for him in his years at Arsenal's Hale End academy.

Club career

Arsenal

Early career

Balogun joined

at the age of eight after being scouted while playing for his previous Sunday League side, Aldersbrook. Before trialling with Arsenal, he had trialled with North London rivals

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and nearly signed for them. In 2017 he was an integral part of Trevor Bumstead's Arsenal U16 side that won the

Liam Brady William Brady (born 13 February 1956) is an Irish former footballer. He found success both in England with Arsenal, where he won an FA Cup in 1979, and in Italy with Juventus, winning two Serie A titles. Brady was capped 72 times for the Irelan ...

Cup, beating

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

respectively. He signed a professional contract in February 2019. In July 2020, after failing to agree a new contract with Arsenal, he was linked with a transfer away from the club, including a proposed £8 million sale to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. He made his senior debut in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

on 29 October 2020, coming on as a substitute in the 74th minute in a group stage match against

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

. He scored his first senior goal on 26 November 2020, in a Europa League group stage match against

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

. On 26 April 2021, Balogun signed a new long-term contract with the club. Balogun made his

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

debut in a 2–0 loss against newly promoted

on 13 August 2021. On 12 January 2022, he joined

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on a loan deal until the end of the season.

2022–23 season: Loan to Reims

In August 2022, he moved on loan to French club

. Balogun scored on his debut for the club on 7 August, a 4–1 defeat to

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

; fellow Arsenal loanee

Nuno Tavares Nuno Albertino Varela Tavares (born 26 January 2000) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ligue 1 club Marseille, on loan from Premier League club Arsenal. Club career Benfica Born in Lisbon of Cape Verdean desc ...

scored for Marseille in the match, on his debut respectively. On 29 January 2023, Balogun scored a late goal in stoppage time to seal a 1–1 draw away to league leaders PSG. It was his 11th goal in Ligue 1 during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, the most of any player aged 21 or under in Europe's top five leagues. Three days later, Balogun scored his first senior hat-trick in a 4–2 win over

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

, his 14th goal of the season in Ligue 1. This made him the top scorer in Ligue 1.

International career

Born in the United States to Nigerian parents and raised in England, Balogun is eligible to represent all three nations at international level. After playing for England at the under-17 level and appearing in the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, he accepted a call up from the United States under-18 national team in August 2018 for a training camp and a tournament in the Czech Republic. He played in all four of the United States' games in the

Václav Ježek Václav Ježek (1 October 1923, Zvolen – 27 August 1995, Prague) was the coach of the Czechoslovakia national football team when they won the 1976 UEFA European Football Championship, 1976 European Championships. Career Chiefly remembered more ...

Youth Tournament and scored twice. He has also expressed interest in playing for

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, although he has stated that he enjoys England's "style of play" which is "similar to Arsenal's". In 2019, he appeared and scored for the England under-18 national team in a tournament in Dubai. In October 2020 he made an appearance for the England under-20 against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. On 27 August 2021, Balogun received his first call up to the England under-21 team. On 7 September 2021, he made his England U21 debut as a substitute during the 2–0 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification win over Kosovo under-21s at Stadium MK. In October 2022 he said he was open to playing for Nigeria.

Style of play

Balogun is known for his pace, technique, and being two-footed.

Martin Keown Martin Raymond Keown (; born 24 July 1966) is an English football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1984 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for Arsenal, where he made over 400 appearances for the club a ...

has compared Balogun to Arsenal's second highest ever goalscorer

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...

, due to his pace and intelligent movement. In his first interview for

, Balogun said he takes inspiration from

Edinson Cavani Edinson Roberto Cavani Gómez (; born 14 February 1987) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Valencia and the Uruguay national team. Nicknamed ''El Matador'' ('The Bullfighter'), being known for his i ...

and

Robert Lewandowski Robert Lewandowski (; born 21 August 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Poland national team. Recognised for his positioning, technique and finishing, Lewandowski is co ...

Media

Balogun was involved in the Amazon Original sports

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

'' All or Nothing: Arsenal'', which documented the club by spending time with the coaching staff and players behind the scenes both on and off the field throughout their 2021–22 season.

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Arsenal F.C. website
Profile
at the Premier League website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balogun, Folarin 2001 births Living people Soccer players from New York City English footballers England youth international footballers American soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players English sportspeople of Nigerian descent American sportspeople of Nigerian descent American emigrants to England Arsenal F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Association football forwards Footballers from Greater London Black British sportspeople Premier League players England under-21 international footballers Stade de Reims players English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Ligue 1 players