Folarin Balogun’s curious bet with Bukayo Saka
Balogun chatted about his brief return to Arsenal, his decision to play for the United States and his curious bet with Saka.
Monaco and USMNT forward Folarin Balogun, is slowly recovering the great form with which he showed last season which he finished with 21 goals during his loan stint with Stade de Reims in Ligue 1. Those figures made him the focus of attention as one of the brightest promises in the five major leagues in Europe.
He returned to his parent club Arsenal, but only completed part of the preseason, as he did not enter into plans for the London team and ended up back in Ligue 1, this time with Monaco - the league leaders.
In an exclusive interview for ESPN, Balogun opened up about a number of different topics, including his brief time with Mikel Arteta’s team and what they said to each other. He made it clear that the Gunners manager had congratulated him for his great performances but the decision to stay or not was up to the club’s senior management.
“The conversations between me and him were good, but it was more about the club, what they wanted to do. It was out of my hands,” he reasoned. “That’s how I felt. It wasn’t something I could control. The only thing I could do was just turn up to train and work hard. So I did that. And then after training, I enjoyed being back in London. I saw my friends, caught up with my family, and yeah, I wasn’t really too bothered about it”.
Wager with Bukayo Saka
Balogun and Arsenal striker Bukayo Saka are great friends, that has always been clear and for this season, both set themselves a challenge to see who would score the most goals during the season.
“I made a bet with Bukayo that this season if he reached certain set of figures and if I reached certain figures, we would give each other a gift. We still like to keep each other going It’s a pure friendship. I wish him the best and genuinely hope he does well, and I’m sure he wishes the same for me,” Folarin said, explaining that the wager was “about an amount of goals” with the winner to receive a watch.
On representing the USMNT
Balogun had the chance to play for either England or the United States but, after a period of uncertainty, the 22-year-old forward opted for the Stars and Stripes team.
In the same interview for ESPN, Folarin revealed that his mother Florence had already made up her mind that he would play for the United States even though that decision had not yet crossed his mind. mind.
“She’s a big believer that you should go to where your heart is desired. For her, it was really heartwarming just how much [USMNT fans] wanted to support me, and how much they wanted me to be a part of it. That almost came onto me as well. But in the end, it wasn’t about that. It was about me naturally just feeling that this is the best thing, and that this is what I wanted to do,” declared the USMNT No.9.