Folarin Balogun scored twice on his World Cup debut for USA.
The American media are raving about the former Arsenal striker, and Gunners fans are watching on with a mix of pride and curiosity.
So inevitably, the question of whether Mikel Arteta made a mistake in selling him has resurfaced.
Balogun joined Arsenal at the age of eight, worked his way through the Hale End academy and signed a professional contract in 2019.
He made just 10 senior appearances for the Gunners before being sold to Monaco for around £35million in August 2023, following an outstanding loan spell at Reims where he scored 21 Ligue 1 goals in 37 appearances.
🤔 Did Arsenal do a good or bad deal selling Folarin Balogun for £35M?
Arteta explained his reasoning for selling Balogun at the time. “We didn’t have space for him in the squad to give him the minutes that he needs,” he said.
“He did really well last year in his loan period. He’s evolved in the right way and he wanted the chance to continue developing his career.”
With Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah and Kai Havertz — who was transitioning into the first choice striker role — ahead of him, the decision was understandable, despite a lot of fans wanting him to stay.
Arsenal sold Balogun when his value was high, something they have done nowhere near enough over the years. The Gunners also retained a 17.5% sell-on clause.
Was selling Folarin Balogun the right call? Probably yes — but it is complicated
In hindsight, there is a case that Balogun would have been a better squad option than Nketiah, who signed a new contract the summer before Balogun’s sale.
Nketiah scored five Premier League goals that season before he was sold to Crystal Palace the following summer, where he scored just three league goals that season.
Jesus, meanwhile, has never fully recovered his best form since suffering a serious knee injury at the 2022 World Cup, managing just four league goals in the season Balogun was sold.
The season after, Arsenal were forced to use Mikel Merino as an auxiliary centre-forward due to injuries to Havertz and Jesus.
Despite a decent return from Merino, a more instinctive goalscorer like Balogun would have obviously been better suited to the role than the central midfielder.
One wonders whether a title challenge to Liverpool that season might have been more competitive with Balogun still in the building.
Who would you rather starting for Arsenal right now: Folarin Balogun or Viktor Gyokeres?
But hindsight is a luxury. At the time of the sale, Arteta trusted Nketiah’s off-the-ball work and pressing intensity over Balogun’s more natural goalscoring instincts.
And on whatever side of the fence you sit, it all worked out. Arsenal won the Premier League in the end.
Besides, Arteta has been proven right about almost every bold decision he has made.
Balogun, to his enormous credit, took the brave move abroad, rebuilt after a serious shoulder injury that cost him six months of the 2024/25 season, and has now scored 31 goals in 91 appearances for Monaco, including 19 this season.
He is a Hale End product thriving on the world stage, and that is something every Arsenal fan should celebrate.
Did they sell him at the right time? Yes. Could things have worked out differently had he stayed? Perhaps. But football rarely rewards those who dwell on what might have been, and neither Balogun nor Arsenal have any reason to.
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