The decision of the top scorer in the French Ligue 1 Folarin Balogun to pick USA ahead of Nigeria after making up his mind to switch allegiance from England, where he is a youth international has generated some sort of confusion.
Born in New York to Nigerian parents but later migrated to England with his parents. It means he is eligible for all three countries and at youth level he played four times for the USA at Under-18 level. He has since been capped by England at U17s and Under-21s.
Om loan to Reims from Arsenal he has taken Ligue 1 by storm with 18 goals this season making him the top scorer. His future at Arsenal will be made clear in the summer, and it is at the same time that he is expected to announce where his senior international allegiance lies.
For now he appears to be leaning more towards the United States of America and was at their camp during the last international break after withdrawing from the England U21 team due to injury. That decision is said to be connected with his desire to play for USA ahead of Nigeria.
It is said just like his club career, he wants a team where he is sure going to get games and that isn’t possible with Nigeria due to the presence of Napoli forward Victor Osimhen. But sources close to the player said he was only contacted two years ago by Nigeria and since then no contact.
They claimed he has never ruled out a switch to Nigeria but no one has approached him hence his decision to let that option go and focus on either England or the USA, where he has already had talks with the senior national team coaches of both teams.
Daniel Martins.
