If an airline employee had waved through a heavily pregnant woman at an airport 25 years ago, the United States might never have found its World Cup striker. Folarin Balogun’s journey to scoring a brace for the USA at a home World Cup – in the 4-1 win over Paraguay; the first US player to score multiple goals in a World Cup game since 1930 – began with an accident of circumstance long before he kicked a football. His mother, Florence, was living in London but had travelled to New York in 2001 to visit family while pregnant. When she tried to return to England, airline officials refused to let her board without medical clearance. Stranded in Brooklyn, she stayed with relatives and soon gave birth to a son. Within weeks, the family was back in London. But America had already left its mark. Years later, as Balogun wrestled with a choice between England, Nigeria and the United States, his mother would tell him she believed there was a reason he had been born there. “I don’t believe things happened by luck. 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,” Florence Balogun told The Nation while reflecting on her son’s eventual decision to represent the United States. Whether fate or coincidence, that twist of geography would eventually shape one of the most unusual international careers in modern football. Balogun has rarely taken the obvious route. Born in Brooklyn, raised in London and the son of Nigerian parents, his football education came through Arsenal’s celebrated Hale End academy. He was spotted as a child playing Sunday League football and quickly emerged as one of the club’s brightest attacking prospects. His senior debut hinted at a fairytale. Introduced against Dundalk in the Europa League in 2020, he scored with his very first touch for Arsenal. Yet the smooth ascent never arrived.Story continues below this ad Rather than settle for a peripheral role at Arsenal, Balogun sought opportunities elsewhere. A loan spell at Middlesbrough provided experience but little glamour. The real breakthrough came in France, where he joined Reims and exploded into one of Ligue 1’s most prolific forwards, scoring 21 league goals during the 2022-23 season. While many young English-trained forwards stayed within the comfort of the Premier League ecosystem, Balogun crossed the Channel, adapted to a new culture and rebuilt his reputation. The same willingness to chart his own course defined his international future. England had nurtured him through youth football. Nigeria remained the land of his parents. Yet it was the United States that made him feel most wanted. In 2023, he committed to the Stars and Stripes, giving the Americans the clinical No. 9 they had spent years searching for. Looking back on that decision, Balogun himself has often returned to a similar theme. “I think everything happens for a reason,” he said in an interview with U.S. Soccer after choosing to represent the United States.Story continues below this ad Now, as the US hosts the World Cup, Balogun finds himself at the centre of the country’s hopes. His goals in the opener underlined why he is seen as the missing piece US so desperately needed. A missed flight created an American citizen. A London upbringing created a footballer. France transformed him into a goalscorer. And on the sport’s biggest stage, all those influences came together in the shirt of the United States.
Why Folarin Balogun plays for the USA: From a missed flight to a World Cup hero
