Life Comes Even Faster At Folarin Balogun

It's been just about the weirdest two months for the USMNT #9.

Let's go back to halftime on July 1st. A couple minutes before the break, Folarin Balogun has scored. That only came a few minutes after he thought he'd scored against Bosnia, but had it ruled out for offside. For the third-straight World Cup game he's played, Balogun is running the show up front for the hosts. He scored twice in the opener, set up the own goal against Australia, and just creating havoc left and right for any defender that had the misfortune of coming across him. He is one of the first names everyone's talking about at a World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world.

At that moment, if he took himself out of the immediate task (which pro athletes probably don't do but let's take a ride), it might have seemed his entire life was going to change. Balogun would turn 25 two days after this match. He's on a star-making performance in just two and a half games at the World Cup. But sometimes, that's all it takes. He's coming off a surge at Monaco, scoring against PSG in the Champions League, scoring 11 times for Monaco in '26, and he must feel like he's about to break through into the highest tier of world footballer.

20 minutes later, he's sent off. Unfair, but not all that peculiar in the sport. Wonky calls happen all the time, and Balogun will know that even if he was falling down, if his foot lands on an opponent's ankle, the chance of being booted is there. Handles it with aplomb, accepts his fate, hopes beyond hope that his teammates can get him one more game.

Then everything quakes under him. First, all he knows is he's given a reprieve and can play the next game. It must sound like a miracle. The tournament comes around only every four years after all, and no one's guaranteed the next one. A badly timed serious injury, a loss of form, a fallout with a cranky manager can steal a World Cup from a player, and players only get a crack at two or three, if that. Balogun must've been terrified he wouldn't see this stage again for another four years, and suddenly the curtains come open for another one in just a few days' time. Salvation.

But then the furor starts. Furor that doesn't really have anything to do with him. Nothing he asked for, but he's at the center of it. Everyone's thrown off-kilter, including his teammates, even though Balogun hasn't done anything. The Belgians are inspired, he and his teammates freeze, and everything he had done before seems a million miles away.

But hey, soccer doesn't stop. New Ligue 1 season to get to in a few weeks, though Monaco make it clear that they'd like to move him along to balance their books. His World Cup performance, his age, his profile, all point to a move back home, to the Premier League. He and the club think he's ready for the next step, and pushing aside the looniness of how his World Cup ended, everything before that suggests he most certainly is.

Spurs kick the tires. Aston Villa is whispered. He's behind in preseason from his teammates, the season is going to start without him, and also because Monaco want to preserve him for whatever sale comes around.

Finally, the pieces move. Everton have a serious offer, and Balogun can look forward to getting back onto the field, in the Premier League. Get playing, get scoring, and all that horseshit from the summer will start to fade. There's nothing that's happened in the past that can't be buried by more goals.

Get to Liverpool, get to the training ground, take the medical, and now Everton are saying he's not fit, there's something they're worrying about. Sounds suspiciously like they're trying to fuck with Monaco's, and more importantly, his money. Want more incentives, less guaranteed. There's no injury concern, Balogun knows he's been held in reserve in France for this sale, and now Everton are trying to change it after he's already flown in.

So he's itchy. This is all getting a bit...well, Everton. They need him, badly, after selling one of their strikers and their main creative outlet, but they're still getting a little goofy, a little cute with all this. Vibes are bad, and he's out. He doesn't have to put up with this shit. So he won't. Back to Monaco.

Problem is, Monaco don't want him there. Thinking they had the money for him already pocketed, they nixed a deal with Chelsea for Lamine Camara. Now they don't have the money for either, and they need it. They're barking about pushing Balogun to Turkey or Saudi Arabia for whatever they can get, because again, they need the money.

But where is Balogun's career? He might get frozen out in Monaco if he refuses a step or two down to Turkey or the Middle East. If he doesn't play for months, then Premier League teams aren't going to be jonesing to bring him to England in January. He could go to Turkey, probably bang the goals in, but no Turkish team will be super excited to just house him for one season before he wants to get back to a top-five league. And the bigger clubs are probably just a little skeptical of stats harvested in the Turkish League. Victor Osimhen is 27, has 56 goals in three seasons there, and he can't get arrested anywhere else. Is that the future Balogun wants?

The story wouldn't be any different with a pit stop in Saudi Arabia. Out of sight, out of mind.

There must be some confusion for Balogun. All he's done is play well, and score goals, for both club and country. That resulted in an international incident, the world of soccer being tossed upside down, and one of the bigger cases of transfer mishegas of the past few seasons. All of which has left his career on the precipice. Right at the point where it should be elevating to new heights.

Football doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to make any sense. Big Fo is really feeling that last part right now.