Folarin Balogun makes USMNT history with Champions League goals

Folarin Balogun struck twice in the first half of Monaco’s Champions league knockout game against Paris Saint-German on Tuesday, strengthening his case to be the USMNT’s striker at this summer’s World Cup.

The Monaco forward opened the scoring against PSG, nodding home from close range after just 55 seconds. He then added a second after 18 minutes to give Monaco a commanding lead against the reigning European champions. That brace takes Balogun to five goal in this season’s Champions League, an impressive tally for a player outside of the continent’s elite clubs.

Those two goals also earned Balogun a place in the history books as the first American to scored two goals in a Champions League knockout game. Despite Balogun’s goals, PSG staged a comeback with a brace from Désiré Doué and other goal from Achraf Hakimi, giving the Parisian side a 3-2 lead going into the second leg.

Balogun is yet to truly nail down his place in Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT squad for this summer’s World Cup and there is considerable competition for places. The likes of Josh Sargant, Patrick Agyemang, Haji Wright and Ricardo Pepi are also in contention for the starting spot.

So far in 2025/26, Balogun has scored just four goals in 18 appearances in Ligue 1 for Monaco. Nevertheless his form in Europe proves his ability to play at the highest level and may help to persuade Pochettino to hand him the No. 9 jersey for this summer’s tournament.

“I think you have to give credit to Pochettino and his staff,” Balogun said of the USMNT head coach. “They have created an atmosphere where nobody feels like their place is guaranteed. I think that is the most important thing you can do when you have such a big pool of players like the USA does. It was easy for maybe some guys who didn’t get previously called up to almost psychologically go into a place where you don’t feel like you can get picked, you don’t feel like your domestic league warrants you getting picked for the national team because that’s what you’ve been shown before.”

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