"The kid's insane," said Christian Pulisic after watching Folarin Balogun score twice against Paraguay. "He's lethal right now in front of goal." Two goals in a World Cup opener will do that to a teammate's vocabulary. But the story behind how Balogun ended up wearing that USA shirt is stranger — and more politically charged — than any match script.
Balogun, 24, was born in Brooklyn on 3 July 2001 — not because his Nigerian parents were American, but because his mother was too visibly pregnant to board the return flight to London. A grounded passenger, a Brooklyn hospital, and the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution did the rest. Under birthright citizenship laws, that was enough. Balogun was American.
Under President Trump's executive order, he wouldn't be. The order seeks to strip automatic citizenship from children born to parents on temporary visas — exactly the situation Balogun's parents were in. The US Supreme Court is weeks away from ruling on the measure's legality. The irony of the timing, with the World Cup running simultaneously, is hard to overstate.
A player England and Nigeria both lost
Balogun could have played for England or Nigeria. He nearly chose England — he scored seven goals in 13 Under-21 appearances under Lee Carsley, and was central to their 2023 European Championship plans. Then came a prolific loan spell at Reims, a £35m move to Monaco, and a very targeted recruitment effort from US Soccer: NBA tickets, Florida trips, a New York Yankees training visit, dinners with senior internationals. Eventually, Balogun switched.
It turned out to be a generational gain for the United States. As Tommy Marcos, New York president of American Outlaws, put it: "We haven't had that type of player — a top-five league striker that you can just put in there and know he's going to score." That's not sentiment. That's a cold assessment of what US Soccer has lacked for decades at tournament level.
Six goals won the Golden Boot in 10 of the last 12 World Cups. Balogun has two after one game. Anyone betting on him for top scorer at this tournament is not being reckless — they're watching the same matches as everyone else.
The citizenship question won't go away
The administration has said it won't retroactively strip citizenship from people like Balogun. George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin isn't particularly reassured by that. "Trump's promises and guarantees often are not worth very much," he said, "but even if he were to stick to that resolution, a future administration might not."
Most legal observers expect the Supreme Court to block the order — during oral arguments in April, Chief Justice John Roberts responded to the administration's argument with pointed skepticism: "It's a new world. It's the same constitution." A 6-3 conservative bench still looks likely to rule against the executive order, but the fact that the question is being litigated at all creates a shadow over birthright citizens that doesn't disappear with a court ruling.
- Balogun was born in Brooklyn on 3 July 2001 after his mother was denied boarding on a London-bound flight
- His parents are Nigerian; he grew up in England and came through Arsenal's academy
- He scored seven goals in 13 England Under-21 appearances before switching allegiance to the USA in 2023
- He moved from Arsenal to Monaco for £35m after a prolific loan at Reims
- He scored twice against Paraguay in the USA's World Cup opener
Balogun's case is not unique on this squad. The USA's roster has always been built from blended identities — that's not a bug, it's what the country is. But right now, the man those identities produced is two goals into a World Cup and looking like the most dangerous striker in the tournament. Whatever the Supreme Court decides, that part is already done.
