Folarin Balogun will lead the United States’ attack on Friday in Los Angeles, a role he embraced after choosing to represent the U.S. and telling teammates, "There’s millions of fans. It’s just about creating the exposure to make it something more global, but there definitely is a big fanbase. I really felt that." At 24 and fresh off a season in which he led Monaco with 19 Ligue 1 goals and added five in the UEFA Champions League, Balogun arrives as the central striker the USMNT has lacked at major tournaments.
Teammates have been blunt about what he offers. Midfielder Tyler Adams said, "He knows how to find the back of the net," then added that Balogun’s ability to hold up play and link up with others makes him "an important player for us." Those two attributes — a reliable finishing touch and a physical presence capable of bringing teammates into play — are the practical reasons coaches have slotted him into the projected starting XI against Paraguay.
Veteran defender Tim Ream has framed Balogun as the forward the U.S. has been missing. "Being able to be able to hold the ball up and bring other players in, and then his movement in behind and getting himself into low-scoring positions is something that we've been crying out for a long time," Ream said, later adding a training-room aside: "He's probably the most annoying striker for me to have to deal with in training, because he is so quick with his movements and physically strong." Those observations match the numbers: 19 league goals and European competition returns that indicate a player used to finishing at higher levels.
The timing of Balogun’s commitment to the U.S. carries its own friction. Born in Brooklyn and raised in London, he represented both England and the United States at youth levels and was also eligible for Nigeria through his parents. The recruitment push intensified in March 2023: he was called into England’s Under-21 squad instead of the senior side, then pulled out five days later citing injury. It later emerged he had been in Orlando on a USMNT recruiting visit while the national team held camp there, a trip that included a Knicks-Magic game and a stop at Yankees spring training — public moments that helped crystallize his switch to the American program.
The context that frames Balogun’s arrival is blunt. At Qatar 2022 the United States scored three goals in four games and exited in the Round of 16 to the Netherlands. The team did not have a settled, high-output frontrunner: Josh Sargent started twice, Jesús Ferreira once, and Haji Wright partnered Tim Weah in another match. In the modern era only four dedicated frontrunners have scored for the U.S. at the World Cup — Eric Wynalda, Brian McBride, Clint Mathis and Haji Wright — a short list that underscores how rare and valuable a dependable central striker can be for American tournaments.
Club form among American options last season shows depth but different profiles: Ricardo Pepi also scored 19 goals for PSV Eindhoven, and Haji Wright had 18 for Coventry City. Balogun’s distinction is the combination of his Ligue 1 tally and five Champions League goals, evidence the staff points to when weighing his capacity to produce against elite defenders and under pressure.
The immediate test is concrete and unavoidable. Balogun is projected to start for the United States against Paraguay on Friday in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX One and Tubi. If he converts club production into World Cup minutes and goals, the USMNT will have taken a major step toward solving its long-running striker problem ahead of 2026. If he does not, the club numbers will remain promising paper evidence and the central unanswered question will be whether his choice to play for the United States can be turned into the consistent World Cup finishing the team has sought for years.
