"I want to be inevitable." That's Folarin Balogun's stated ambition at World Cup 2026, and through two group stage matches, he's making a credible case.
The 24-year-old AS Monaco striker has been directly responsible for three of the USA's six tournament goals — a brace against Paraguay on June 12 and the forced own goal that opened scoring against Australia on June 19. He's won FIFA's Superior Player of the Match in both games. The USMNT won both games. The math is straightforward.
A historic start, quietly
Balogun's two goals against Paraguay made him the second player in U.S. history to score multiple goals in a single World Cup match — the first since Bert Patenaude's hat-trick against the same opposition in 1930. That's not incidental trivia. That's 95 years between comparable performances.
His two goals currently tie him with Vinícius Júnior, Harry Kane, and Cody Gakpo at four goals in the tournament — though Lionel Messi (five), Kylian Mbappé (four), and Erling Haaland (four) have since edged ahead or level. One more goal puts Balogun alongside Landon Donovan's three-goal haul from 2010, the second-best single-tournament return in USMNT history. Two more and he matches Patenaude's all-time U.S. record of four.
Watching Messi and Mbappé score at will is, Balogun admits, "annoying" — which is exactly the right response for a centre-forward with ambitions. The golden boot market was always going to be dominated by Europe's elite strikers. The fact that a USMNT player is in the conversation at all shifts the calculus on how seriously you take this American side.
Balogun might sit Thursday — and that's fine
The U.S. has already won Group D with a game to spare, meaning Mauricio Pochettino has every reason to rotate against Türkiye on June 25. Balogun is on a yellow card. Resting him for the Round of 32 opener on July 1 in the Bay Area is entirely sensible, and his place in the starting lineup against Türkiye is genuinely uncertain.
His versatility makes the team harder to stop regardless. Against Paraguay he operated as a lone striker. Against Australia he partnered Ricardo Pepi, and Pochettino praised the pressing intensity they generated together. Balogun can score with a one-touch finish off a Pulisic cross, bully his way through a backline, or win a foot-race down the flank and force chaos in the box. Three different goals, three different methods.
- 31' vs Paraguay — clean one-touch finish from a Pulisic cross
- 45' vs Paraguay — upper-corner finish under physical pressure
- vs Australia — forced own goal after winning a 1v1 dribble down the left flank
His backstory — born in Brooklyn, raised in London, through Arsenal's academy, once eligible for Nigeria, England, and the USA — has been told plenty this week. What matters more right now is that he chose the Stars and Stripes in 2023 and has 11 goals in 29 appearances since. The story is nice. The production is what keeps him in the tournament's top scorer conversation.
"I'm very proud to be American," he said. "Nothing changes."
He has 11 career USMNT goals in 29 caps. He's 24. He's at a home World Cup. And Messi's lead at the top of the Golden Boot standings is three goals — not insurmountable, if the knockout rounds go the way USMNT fans are starting to believe they might.
