Meet Folarin Balogun, the star US striker at the Fifa World Cup slapped with a red card ban
The tri-national, who cut his football teeth with Premier League Club Arsenal, qualified to play for Nigeria, England and the US … find out how
Folarin Balogun, USMNT (United States Men’s National Soccer Team) striker, just turned 25 on July 3 – but his red card ban on Wednesday probably muted the celebration.
But how did Balogun get into the US team in the first place? And did you know he qualified to play for three different countries?
How did Folarin Balogun end up playing for the US?
While many USMNT players hold dual citizenship, Balogun holds three, making him eligible to play for the US, the UK and Nigeria. Both Folarin’s mum and dad are Nigerian, while he attained his UK citizenship through naturalisation, as he grew up in London, where his parents moved to before he was born.
But how did he become eligible to play for the US? That goes back to before his birth. His mum travelled to New York to visit her sister and unable to board her flight back to London because she was seven months’ pregnant. So she had to stay on in the US and gave birth in Brooklyn – a twist of fate that granted Folarin his third citizenship.
“I don’t believe things happened by luck,” his mum, Florence, told ESPN in 2023. “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. Even when he wasn’t even thinking of making an international decision, I’d already made up my mind that he is going to play for America.”