Arsenal wonderkid Folarin Balogun is surely confused by what Gareth Southgate has now said as he considers his England future.
What’s the story?
Well, Balogun – who is shining away from Arsenal on loan at Reims – was ignored by Southgate for the current international break, despite outscoring Lionel Messi and Neymar in France.
His omission came despite an injury to Marcus Rashford, with Southgate deciding not to select a replacement.
The 21-year-old has scored 17 goals in 27 Ligue 1 appearances, just two behind Kylian Mbappe as he proves himself capable of performing at an elite level. As a result, Arsenal are now said to value him at £50m, according to Dean Jones.
However, Southgate has now bemoaned his lack of options, complaining that there aren’t enough England players competing at the highest level.
The BBC quote him as saying: “The numbers are the numbers. They’re not going up. It becomes more complicated (to succeed). What’s the best way to judge our players? The Champions League.
“If breaking into the team is the foundation, the Champions League and the upper echelons of the Premier League is the finishing school. The rest of Europe get their foundation in their own domestic leagues and then the cream is sold around the big five leagues and they get the finishing school at the end.”
The 52-year-old even suggested he may have to start looking in the Championship for players to call up.
Funnily enough, Southgate is complaining about his lack of options amidst a time where he is potentially about to lose the chance to ever select Balogun – a potential star of the future – for England.
ESPN believe the Hale End academy graduate, who was born in New York, is in talks to represent the United States Men’s National Team, despite appearing for England at Under-17, Under-18, Under-20 and Under-21 level.
Therefore, we do not have much sympathy for Southgate, who seems to have forced the exact type of talent he is demanding England produce more of away from the Three Lions.
Arsenal should encourage Balogun to ignore England
If Southgate does get in touch with Balogun and try to convince him not to represent the USMNT, Arsenal should encourage their academy graduate to ignore him.
There are a lack of quality options in the USMNT’s centre-forward department, so Balogun would be more likely to start for them on a regular basis than he would be for England.
Additionally – from a marketing aspect – he could become a global superstar if he chooses to represent the USMNT, something Arsenal would surely want to happen from a commercial aspect.
In other news, Chris Sutton hails forgotten Celtic star Mikey Johnston for Republic of Ireland vs Latvia
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
