5 Reasons Why Folarin Balogun Joining the USMNT Is a Game Changer

Talk about a wild ride…

On Tuesday morning, U.S. Soccer announced that Folarin Balogun had committed to representing the United States Men's National Team at the international level. The announcement came after some cryptic Instagram posts, a bit of social media super-sleuthing from a handful of committed USMNT fans, an Orlando Magic game, a New York Yankees game, a conversation with U.S. Soccer, and then, finally, a hype video announcing the decision.

Why did the U.S. pull out all the stops for Balogun? Well, because the 21-year-old striker is one of the best up-and-coming strikers in the world.

Balogun, who was born in New York, has 19 goals for Reims in France's Ligue 1 this season, where he's on loan from Arsenal. According to FBref, he's currently 11th in Europe's top five leagues (the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1) in goals.

The young striker could've played for England or Nigeria, but he chose the United States.

Here's why his decision is a game-changer for the USMNT.

I don't know about you, but I've been ready to be done with the No. 9 debates for a while now.

Should Ricardo Pepi or Brandon Vazquez or Jordan Pefok have made the United States' 2022 World Cup roster over Haji Wright? Is Jesus Ferreira good enough for the international level? If Daryl Dike can finally stay healthy, will he change things for the USMNT?

We've been trying to answer those questions and have those arguments for years now, with very, very little progress. But as the last World Cup cycle progressed, it became clear that there was little difference between those players. The U.S. didn't have an obvious, go-to guy up top.

Now they do.

With his elite movement in the box and his top-tier goal-scoring ability, Balogun is an obvious choice to start as the team's No. 9 for the foreseeable future.

It's completely possible that we see him start as soon as the USMNT's next game, which just so happens to be a clash with Mexico on June 15 in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals.

There is a general shortage of top-tier strikers in the world right now.

There are less than 20 players in Europe's top five leagues with more than 15 goals in the 2022-23 season. With his 19 goals, Balogun is one of them — and when you watch his tape and look at some of his underlying numbers (he's created 24.2 xG this year, per FBref), you can see that his production is sustainable at his current level. Balogun is one of a select few forwards with real success in a difficult league this year.

Now, some countries are particularly well-stocked when it comes to the No. 9 position. Of those players with at least 15 goals in a top-five league this year, five are French. Four are English. The rest all play for different countries, which means that just 12 nations have a productive striker based on that somewhat arbitrary 15-goal mark. Now, we're not accounting for injuries or even the difference in difficulty between various leagues, but this does illustrate the idea that high-level goal scorers don't grow on trees.

By securing one of the best (and youngest) goal threats around, the USMNT has given itself an edge.

When you watch Balogun play, you see an extremely well-rounded striker.

He's an impressive athlete — more on that in a moment — and his movement in the box is incredibly sharp. He's always making darting runs to find little gaps between opposing defenders.

"I spend a lot of time analyzing places I should be in the box and where I can find space," Balogun said earlier this year. "And I mean even when I'm watching football games just at home, of course, a part of me watches them just as a fan, and I'm just as intrigued in football as anyone is, but I'm also looking to see why certain players, the ball always lands to them."

With his movement in the box and even his touches deeper downfield, Balogun attracts a ton of attention from opposing defenders. His gravitational pull forces the center back into his orbit, where he usually darts right around them and into the path of a ball in the box.

But even when Balogun doesn't get directly involved in the play, his gravity will create space for the USMNT's attackers. Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, in particular, should benefit from Balogun's presence. Opposing defenses won't just be able to focus on them anymore. Now they'll have to stay more compact centrally to deal with Balogun, which should create more room for the United States' dynamic wingers and halfspace attackers.

Balogun has a high soccer IQ and he's pretty smooth on the ball. But he's also a runner. He can flip on the afterburners and break behind the opposing backline on a counterattack at a moment's notice.

Take this stoppage time equalizer that he scored for Reims back in January of this year as an example of what Balogun can do in transition.

Reims wins the ball in the middle third after a quick game of head tennis. Once the ball finally settles, Balogun starts to sprint in behind to get on the end of a through ball from one of his teammates. His speed is more than enough to split a pair of defenders, which then allows him to latch onto the ball, round the goalkeeper, and fire a shot into the back of the net.

It's a great goal. When you factor in that it came against Paris Saint Germain, the best and richest club in France, it starts to look even greater.

Because the USMNT still can't compete with the best of the best in the open field, even with Balogun on board, we should expect to see them play on the break from time to time ahead of and during the 2026 World Cup. Thanks to his straight-line speed, Balogun gives the U.S. another weapon in those transition moments.

"When camp is over, you kind of miss them."

That's multi-national Yunus Musah talking about the USMNT's atmosphere. Musah chose to play for the United States over England, Ghana, and Italy. Before Musah, Sergiño Dest decided to play for the United States over the Netherlands. After Musah, Ricardo Pepi and Alejandro Zendejas both chose to play for the U.S. over Mexico.

And the latest big decision? That belongs to Balogun, who chose to play for the USMNT over England and Nigeria.

The United States has had an impressive amount of success when it comes to recruiting multi-national's over the last several years.

The team appeared to develop a strong culture during the last World Cup cycle, which was particularly important after the program's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Comments from Musah and close friendships between players like Tim Weah and DeAndre Yedlin make that clear. On Balogun's USMNT announcement Instagram post, Weah, Matt Turner, Dike, Musah, and other U.S. players commented emoji-filled welcome messages.

Players certainly seem to enjoy interacting with each other, which seems especially important after the locker room was tested following Gio Reyna's lack of effort in training ahead of the 2022 World Cup.