Arsenal of England youth team striker, Folarin Balogun is at the head of a list of five talented kids now on the radar of international caps with United States of America.
Although all four kids also have the potentials and prospects of donning the colours of Nigeria or England at full senior level, United States Football Federation (USFF) is moving fast in order to get them all before the other two nations make any move for the quintet.
The report out of God’s Own Country indicates that the other four Nigerian-born lads wanted by Team USA alongside Balogun are Owen Otasowie (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Chituru Odunze (Leicester City), Daryl Dike (Orlando City) and Ayo Akinola (Toronto), who all gained invitations for the Americans’ recent international matches.
Of the lot, Balogun has twinkled most brilliantly in recent time, as he keeps churning out brilliant form with Arsenal’s youth team and has gained some appearances with The Gunners’ senior squad, including a substitute’s role in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup loss to Manchester City at Emirates Stadium, London.
His burst of form has earned him attention from far and wide, with speculation linking him with a possible January transfer to a bigger club, but he also now faces a decision over the senior national team he will later on represent.
Balogun, who has been described as a advanced striker whose strengths are pace, acceleration, finishing, instinct, movement, power and ambidexterity, played for United States’ under-18 side in some non-binding games after England provisionally cap-tied him.
Born in New York to Nigerian parents, the 19-year-old Balogun is eligible to represent United States, England and Nigeria at international level but is provisionally cap-tied to the Europeans, having featured for The Young Lions at the 2018 U17 European Championship.
His stock has soared after he ignited his senior career at Arsenal with two goals in five games off the bench, and Teamtalk reports that the US are hot on the trail of Balogun after convincing his former Arsenal youth team colleague, Yunus Musah, who now plays for Valencia of Spain, to commit his future to them.
On the other hand, Akinola appears to have snubbed the chance of playing for USA, as the Toronto ace has accepted a call-up to Canada’s senior national team camp scheduled to take place at IMG Center in Bradenton, Florida, USA in January.
Canada’s coach, John Herdman will fine-tune his strategies during the preparatory camp next month ahead of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in March and one of his choice invitees is Akinola, who was born in Detroit to Nigerian parents but moved to Canada at the age of one.
The 20-year-old attacker, who is eligible to represent Nigeria, United States and Canada, has nine goals in 15 Major League Soccer (MLS) appearances and scored on his senior debut for the US in a 6-0 spanking of El Salvador in a friendly earlier this month.
Akinola is not cap-tied to his country of birth, despite having previously played competitive matches for them at under-17 and under-20 levels, thereby giving Canada’s coach hope of having the youngster for the immediate plans of the national team.
Herdman told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: “He’s got big decisions to make. We’re very respectful of that. The one thing he has wanted is that opportunity to experience Canada. There are some big pros and cons for the decision both ways, whether it’s the U.S. or Canada.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations over the last seven, eight months and he’s kept his word to come in with us, we’ll just be ourselves and show him what Canada has to offer.”
