"He's probably the most annoying striker for me to have to deal with in training." That's USMNT captain Tim Ream talking about Folarin Balogun — and if your own centre-back captain is that bothered by you, you're doing something right heading into a home World Cup.
Balogun arrives at this tournament in genuine form. Eight consecutive games with a goal towards the end of Monaco's Ligue 1 season. A goal off the bench against Senegal in the warm-up. The club's Player of the Season award for 2025/26. At 24, the Brooklyn-born, London-raised striker has found a consistency that eluded him early in the campaign — and the timing couldn't be better.
The striker Pochettino has been waiting for
Mauricio Pochettino named three strikers in his 26-man squad: Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, and Haji Wright. But with Balogun logging 117 of a possible 180 minutes across the two pre-tournament friendlies, the pecking order is pretty clear. He's the No.9 in Pochettino's 3-4-2-1. The job is his.
Ream's description of what Balogun brings goes beyond the goals. "Able to hold the ball up, bringing other people into play. His movement in behind, being in position and getting himself into goalscoring positions is something that we've been crying out for for a long time." That's not a player being hyped up — that's a captain identifying a tactical problem his team just solved.
The USMNT open against Paraguay, a winnable group stage fixture, and that opener matters enormously. A goal in your first-ever World Cup match, at home, in front of a crowd that only knows Balogun as theirs — that's the kind of moment that rewrites a player's story overnight. His odds to score in the opener deserve attention given his current run of form.
A route to this point that wasn't straightforward
The path here was complicated. Developed at Arsenal, courted by England, ultimately choosing the United States in 2023 — Balogun navigated the kind of international tug-of-war that can derail a player's focus entirely. It didn't. If anything it sharpened him.
"I remember an immense amount of appreciation from the fans," he said this week at the USMNT's base in Irvine. "I didn't realize just how big football, or soccer, is out here in America. So to really feel that, in full force, was something that was inspirational to me and made my decision easier."
The rest of this USMNT squad — Pulisic, McKennie, Adams — carry the weight of expectation that comes with being known quantities. Balogun carries something slightly different: the pressure of being the finisher in a team that hasn't always had one. The goal threat in a system that needs him to deliver.
"I'm just trying to stay present, stay in the moment and soak everything in," he said. For a player entering his first World Cup, that's either a sign of genuine composure or very good media training. His goals this season suggest it's probably the former.
