When the United States plays Australia in the World Cup on Friday, U.S. striker Folarin Balogun will be a key to the attack. He scored two goals in the opener against Paraguay.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Today in the World Cup, the U.S. men’s national soccer team will face Australia. It comes on the heels of one of the best games the U.S. men have ever played at this tournament, thanks to one player who had to be recruited from another country. NPR’s Becky Sullivan has his story.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Folarin Balogun is the starting striker for the U.S. men’s team, but to hear his voice, the U.S. might not have been your first guess as to where he’s from.
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FOLARIN BALOGUN: No, I’ve seen New York. I’ve seen New York. New York’s probably the place I’m familiar with the most out here. So yeah.
SULLIVAN: Balogun’s parents are Nigerian, and of course, he has that English accent. But his winding path to this World Cup team began 25 years ago when his mother was in Brooklyn to visit family, and she was pregnant, as Balogun recounted on the “Men In Blazers” podcast a few years ago.
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BALOGUN: As she was planning to leave, she went to the airport. And actually, when she was at the airport about to board her plane, they noticed she was too close to her due date, so they told her that she couldn’t fly.
SULLIVAN: With no other options, Balogun said, his mom turned right around and headed back to her sister-in-law’s to stay there until her son was born. Soon after the Balogun family moved to London, where Folarin grew up, a scout with a Premier League team – Arsenal – spotted him at a youth tournament. And by the time he was in his teens, he was playing with the Arsenal and England youth squads, scoring goals with confidence and power.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #1: Loose ball. Balogun hooks it into the net, and Arsenal are in front. And no surprise, it’s Flo Balogun once again.
SULLIVAN: But England’s national team is stacked, and its biggest star was already a striker. Meanwhile, the U.S. was badly in need of one. The roster then was filled with talented wingers and midfielders who could build attacks up the field, but they lacked somebody who could reliably get the ball into the net and take some pressure off of star Christian Pulisic. At the 2022 World Cup, the Americans scored just three goals in four games. Afterward, as U.S. soccer officials began to plan for the future, the lack of strikers coming up among players already in the American system meant they had to look elsewhere. Here’s interim coach Anthony Hudson speaking in early 2023.
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ANTHONY HUDSON: If there are any dual nationals out there that can help the team, we need to connect and engage and try and encourage them and see – show them what we’re doing and hopefully get guys to come and commit to us.
SULLIVAN: In March of that year, Balogun, who still officially represented England, found himself in Orlando at the same time as the U.S. men’s national team was meeting there for a camp. So Hudson met with Balogun and made the pitch. A few players had dinner with him, too. It was all supposed to be a secret, but social media detectives deduced where he was from a picture he posted on Instagram. And soon fans started flooding his social media with American flag emojis and comments urging him to join the team. It showed him, Balogun told reporters last month, that Americans cared more about soccer than he had ever known.
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BALOGUN: That was motivating ’cause it just shows, you know, how people say, you know, soccer’s not a big thing over here, but I do think it is. You know, there definitely is a big fan base, and, you know, I really felt that.
SULLIVAN: A couple months later, Balogun made it official by joining the U.S. And soon enough, he was making his presence known, as heard here on CBS Sports.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #2: Driving into a space (ph) with Balogun on his right. On a night of firsts, Folarin Balogun has his first international goal for the U.S.
SULLIVAN: Now the 24-year-old is having a banner year. For his club team, Monaco, he scored 13 goals this past season. And for the U.S., he has scored three times in five games this year, including twice in last Friday’s World Cup opener against Paraguay. That made him the first American man to score multiple goals in a World Cup game since 1930. Teammate Weston McKennie says Balogun has more than delivered on all of that recruitment promise.
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WESTON MCKENNIE: Having him with us and, you know, his abilities that he has and – to bring competition into the striker position and be able to give everyone a run for their money. And yeah. I guess you say, in the return, it was not an expensive dinner. It was a cheaper dinner than – for what we got.
SULLIVAN: Balogun called his performance against Paraguay a dream. He’ll have the chance for another today against Australia. That kicks off at 3 p.m. Eastern time or noon Pacific.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Seattle.
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