Ex-Arsenal and Sunday League striker can take pressure off Christian Pulisic and be USMNT’s real World Cup star

Folarin Balogun is more important than Christian Pulisic.

And if the United States Men’s National Team is going to make America soccer-crazy this summer, Balogun will be the key to unlocking that buzz during the biggest World Cup in history.

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Balogun can be bigger than USMNT’s Captain America

“In Folarin Balogun, you have somebody that is built to be that focal point, that number nine, that source of goals,” USMNT correspondent Ben Jacobs exclusively told talkSPORT.

“If he can get going, then suddenly the US Men’s National Team have got weapons, have got form, have got chemistry.”

It’s even bigger than that for a 24-year-old forward who was born to Nigerian parents in Brooklyn, New York, then moved to London after one month and was raised in England.

The 5ft 10in Balogun has the potential to be the breakthrough name for USMNT — and take the spotlight off Captain America from Los Angeles to Seattle and back in early Group D action.

For Brad Friedel, who earned 82 caps as a USMNT goalkeeper and spent 16 seasons in the Premier League, there’s a clear on-the-pitch connection between Balogun and Pulisic.

It starts with Mauricio Pochettino‘s formation.

“Balogun, I would start as the nine,” Friedel exclusively told talkSPORT. “Pulisic on one side, (Timothy) Weah on the other.”

Then it runs much deeper.

Easy way to take scoring pressure off Pulisic

Pulisic is USMNT’s biggest name and might be the only player recognized by general US sports fans when his face briefly flashes on ESPN or a local TV World Cup promotional segment.

Yet being on the cover of Time magazine hasn’t helped Pulisic score goals in Serie A, and Friedel believes that taking pressure off the AC Milan star is the best way to create World Cup production for soccer’s Captain America.

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A breakthrough for Balogun — who was scouted from a Sunday League team, then joined Arsenal’s youth academy at 8 after trialing with Tottenham — can set up a breakthrough for Pulisic.

“He’s (Pulisic) a player that needs sort of no pressure, some calmness, and then he can perform, and that’s why I think you see he is streaky,” Friedel said.

“When you have Christian at the top of his game, he’s excellent. And he provides something for the US National Team that no other player can provide. But when he’s not at the top of his game, you can tell very much. What ends up happening — because we don’t have another player like him on the field — other teams can focus on him defensively.

“Balogun’s season has really pleased me and he’s really confident in his goal scoring form. So hopefully teams will have to put a little bit more of an eye on him.”

The right-footed Balogun scored in two of his last five matches with Monaco.

After recording one start and playing 70 minutes with Arsenal in 2021-22, Balogun dipped down to eventually rise with Middlesbrough in the Championship.

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He’s spent the last four seasons in Ligue 1, totaling 45 goals, 11 assists, 86 starts and two top-three finishes.

Balogun, who chose USMNT over England and Nigeria in international play, could currently walk down almost every street in the USA and go completely unrecognized.

That will change if he pounds the net this summer — and allows Pulisic to breathe easier with a USMNT jersey on his back on a worldwide stage.

“If Pochettino can get all of this potential to click, then there is no reason why — with home support — the US Men’s National Team can’t get beyond that Round of 32 and, who knows, maybe even as far as a quarterfinal,” Jacobs said.

For Pulisic to run free, Balogun must become a known name in the USA.

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