Folarin Balogun just became the first US player to score multiple goals in a World Cup match since 1930. He did it in the opening game of a home World Cup, in a 4-1 win over Paraguay, on the sport's biggest stage. And none of it happens if an airline employee had let a heavily pregnant woman board a flight from New York to London in 2001.
His mother, Florence, was living in London when she flew to Brooklyn to visit family. When she tried to return home, airline staff refused to let her board without medical clearance. She stayed with relatives. She gave birth to a son. Weeks later, she was back in England — but Folarin was now an American citizen by birthright.
Three countries, one decision
Balogun grew up in London. His parents are Nigerian. He came through Arsenal's Hale End academy, one of English football's most respected development programmes, and scored with his first touch in senior football — a Europa League appearance against Dundalk in 2020. England, Nigeria and the United States all had a legitimate claim on him.
England nurtured him. Nigeria was in his blood. But it was the US that made him feel wanted, and in 2023 he committed to the Stars and Stripes. Florence Balogun says she always believed there was a reason he was born there. "I don't believe things happened by luck," she told The Nation. "I think for me to have gone to America and for me to have had him there, it is just something that has really stuck with me."
Whether you buy the fate narrative or not, the practical reality is clear: the USMNT spent years searching for a clinical centre-forward. Balogun is exactly that.
France built the goalscorer
The path there wasn't linear. After failing to nail down a regular role at Arsenal, he took a loan at Middlesbrough, then crossed the Channel to join Reims. That move looked like a lateral step at the time. It wasn't. He scored 21 Ligue 1 goals in 2022-23, proving he could operate as a genuine No. 9 rather than a promising prospect still waiting to happen. That season is what made the US sit up properly.
Now he's delivering at the World Cup on home soil, and the odds on the USMNT going deep in this tournament look a lot more interesting than they did before kick-off. A striker who knows where the net is changes everything for a side that has historically been better at pressing and running than actually finishing.
"I think everything happens for a reason," Balogun said after committing to the US in 2023. Right now, it's hard to argue with him.
