Folarin Balogun is having a World Cup. Two goals in the USA's 4-2 win over Paraguay, an assist in the 2-0 defeat of Australia, and now Everton are being linked with a move for the Monaco striker. David Moyes, apparently, is watching closely.
A source close to the Everton manager told Football Insider that the Blues may make a move in the current window, with Monaco reportedly valuing Balogun at over £40m. He has two years left on his contract and wants out of the principality. The timing lines up.
What Balogun actually brings
The numbers at Monaco are hard to argue with. Thirty-one goals in 91 appearances, 19 of them last season alone. He left Arsenal — where Eddie Nketiah kept blocking his path — for a loan at Reims, scored 22 goals, and Monaco paid €30m to make him a permanent signing in August 2023. He has repaid that fee and then some.
Alan Smith, who knows what it takes to lead the Arsenal line having scored 115 goals in 351 games for the club, offered a measured endorsement: "He's done brilliantly well going off and forging a career in France... It might be that he's ready for that kind of move, the step up into the Premier League, which is a big one from the French top division. Everton could be a good home for him."
"Could be" is doing some work in that sentence. The Premier League is a genuine step up from Ligue 1, and Everton — settling into Hill Dickinson Stadium and in need of a focal point up front — are hardly the most straightforward landing spot for a player taking that leap.
The Balogun backstory is genuinely strange
His eligibility for the USA comes down to one of football's stranger origin stories. Nigerian parents, raised in London from two months old, but born in Brooklyn on July 3, 2001 — only because his mother was denied a return flight at seven months pregnant. That accidental New York birth gave him an American passport, and ultimately an international career that has made him one of the most recognisable faces of this World Cup.
Moyes has previous with American talent at Everton — Tim Howard, Landon Donovan and Brian McBride all came through the door at Goodison. Whether Balogun becomes the latest chapter in that relationship depends on whether Everton can get anywhere near Monaco's £40m valuation. At 24, with a World Cup behind him and his stock rising by the game, the price is only going one direction.
