USMNT’s Balogun departs Arsenal, joins Monaco in โ‚ฌ40m-plus transfer

It’s good bye Arsenal, bonjour Monaco for Balogun

U.S. men’s national team striker Folarin Balogun is heading back to France.

The 22-year-old has sealed a move to Monaco, with the Ligue 1 club confirming a permanent transfer for the (now former) Arsenal forward on Wednesday. Terms were not announced, but reports have valued the deal as somewhere north of โ‚ฌ40 million.

A report from Fabrizio Romano on Wednesday said that Arsenal will maintain a sell-on clause for the USMNT man for nearly 20% of a future sale.

“I think it’s a fabulous move for him,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s familiar with the French league. He’s already performed at a really high level with a French team and now he’s going to a bigger club in the French league. I think it’s a really strong move.

“We expect him to be able to score goals, continue to score goals, like he’s done. Having met him and spoke to him, he’s a really humble guy who’s focused on the process and and continuing to improve, and he sees this as the next step for him on his way as he climbs the ladder in European soccer.”

Balogun’s return to Ligue 1 looks like very good news for him and the USMNT, and very bad news for teams in France not named AS Monaco, who overcame strong interest from Inter.

Last season, Arsenal sent Balogun out on loan to an unfancied Reims side due to a backlog of strikers in north London. Balogun responded with 22 goals in 39 appearances, including over 46% of the team’s 45 league goals. Balogun finished the season in fifth in the Ligue 1 goalscoring table.

Balogun won’t just walk into the team once he arrives at Stade Louis-II. Manager Adi Hรผtter has so far played out of a 3-4-2-1 formation this season, and Monaco’s lone striker has been its captain, Wissam Ben Yedder.

The 32-year-old has four goals in three games thus far in Monaco’s 2023-24 campaign, scoring at least once in all three of the club’s Ligue 1 matches.ย Furthermore, Monaco’s attack is firing on all cylinders at the moment, producing at least three goals in each of those games.

Ben Yedder can play underneath a striker as well. With Switzerland target man Breel Embolo going down with an ACL injury early in the club’s preseason, the big transfer fee is a clear statement that Monaco will be expecting Balogun to deliver the goods.

[lawrence-related id=25143,24074,23368]