Balogun sparks social media meltdown with Instagram post

Robin Bairner

• 23 Mar 2023 07:43 GMT
• 5 min read

Arsenal attacker Folarin Balogun has sent social media into meltdown over his latest Instagram post, which drops a strong hint where his international future lies.

Balogun has turned out for both England and the USA at youth level but is also eligible to play for Nigeria, where both his parents were born.

As a result, there is a three-way tug-of-war for the 21-year-old, who has caught the eye this season thanks to his exploits on loan at Ligue 1 side Reims. Balogun has scored 17 goals in France’s top flight this season for a relatively unfancied side, which has seen his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) rise to €15 million.

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It appears that Balogun is ready to commit to the USMNT following an Instagram post made on Wednesday.

Balogun is pictured in Orlando, where the US training camp presently is ahead of CONCACAF Nations League matches against Grenada and El Salvador this week. He has not tagged the post, but fans eager to see him play for the country of his birth have taken over the comments, urging him to commit to the US.

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Balogun would be a ‘great addition’ to USMNT – Turner

In comments relayed by the Daily Mail, Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner admits that he has already spoken to Balogun about potentially changing international allegiance.

“I've spoken to Flo, we obviously had most of our preseason together. And I knew going into it that he had some roots in the US,” Turner admitted.

“So him and I developed a relationship pretty quickly. And yeah, that's pretty much the extent of it, we check in on each other here and there.

“And yeah, he'd be a great addition to our national team. I think he's done really well, obviously, for his club on loan, and we'll see, you know, the decision has to come from the heart.

“It's not necessarily an easy task always to come and play in these CONCACAF games. And it's a tough region at times. So for us, we'd be we'd be really grateful to have him but his heart, his heart needs to be in.”

With Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen filling the centre-forward role for England and Nigeria respectively, Balogun might be well advised to commit to the USMNT if it is international game time he wants.