EXCLUSIVE: Arsenal to reject all Folarin Balogun transfer bids

Steve Kay

• Updated: 18 Mar 2023 09:39 GMT
• 3 min read

Exclusive

Arsenal will not consider selling on-loan Reims striker Folarin Balogun in the summer and will turn down any transfer bids for the 21-year-old hitman.

The England U21 international star joined the Champagne club last summer on a season-long loan and has proven himself to be a big hit in France.

Balogun has 16 goals to his credit in Ligue 1 this season, with Reims presently on a 19-match undefeated run, which is the longest current streak in any of Europe’s Big 5 leagues.

MORE: How Folarin Balogun has become the most important player in Ligue 1

His progress has not gone unnoticed at the Emirates Stadium, where manager Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu have already made up their minds over the young attacker. Instead of considering any transfer bids in the summer, Arsenal will either loan Balogun back to Reims or will reintegrate him into their first-team squad.

Certainly, there are no plans to accept any transfer bids for a player whose contract expires in 2025.

MORE: Folarin Balogun transfer value has doubled with Reims loan

Serie A giants Milan and Inter have been linked with interest in the player, while Reims have already indicated that retaining the striker on a permanent basis is “impossible”.

FootballTransfers’ Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) for Balogun is €15 million – up from €8m when he made the loan move to Reims.

Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) explained

Our Player Valuation Model calculates an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) for more than 240.000 players in the world.

Read more here.

Our Player Valuation Model calculates an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) for more than 240.000 players in the world. It uses information on the player's skill, potential, performance, contract duration, position and other statistics to estimate an accurate ETV.

Read more here.

Arteta to follow Saliba example with Balogun?

Arteta has already shown in the past that he is prepared to be patient with young players by sending them out on loan until he feels they are ready to make the step up at Arsenal.

That has been exemplified by centre-back William Saliba, who spent three separate loan spells in Ligue 1 with Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille.

With the French defender, there was a clamour to have him back in the first-team squad rapidly, but Arteta was happy to give the young player regular first-team football to let him develop.

He is ready to adopt a similar approach with Balogun, although the final decision as to whether the player returns to Arsenal for 2023/24 or remains at Reims will only be made at the end of the season.