Folarin Balogun is living up to the hype as a long-awaited top striker for the USMNT

Along with Haji Wright, who scored both goals Tuesday against Australia, Balogun has given the U.S. soccer team a desperately needed scoring threat.

Folarin Balogun (left) in flight during the U.S. men's soccer team's game against Japan last month.Read moreJeff Dean / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Oct. 15, 2025, 12:07 p.m. ET

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — It’s one of those things that befuddles soccer’s devotees as much as its critics.

The net is big, and the field is vast. So why do people in the sport often say that scoring a goal is the hardest thing to do?

It surely can’t be that difficult to run forward, have a teammate pass you the ball, and shoot it in.

During the last men’s World Cup in 2022, U.S. fans had to spend the Monday after Thanksgiving explaining to their office colleagues why a 0-0 tie — a most un-American result — against England was one of the best games the team has ever played.

The retort was obvious: If it was that good, why didn’t they score?

Three years is a long time to wait for answers. But as next year’s tournament draws closer, the new American squad may have finally found them.

Haji Wright is one. He carried his strong club form with Coventry City of England’s second division into Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Australia, scoring both U.S. goals with style.

Ricardo Pepi is another, though he hasn’t shown it for a bit. He’s just back from a long injury absence that has kept him from the national team since last November. Hopefully he’ll return for next month’s games, including a matchup vs. Paraguay at Subaru Park.

But the biggest answer is Folarin Balogun. Two-and-a-half years since he joined the senior U.S. national team, he has seized the mantle for his country.

The 24-year-old Brooklyn native has scored goals in two of the Americans’ four games so far this autumn, taking his career total to seven tallies in 21 national team appearances. Both numbers likely would be bigger if not for shoulder and ankle injuries over the last 12 months.

The two best abilities

“It was a fantastic and unique journey for me to begin playing with the men’s national team,” Balogun said, a journey that included being recruited to the U.S. program with all the flash of a college football team chasing a quarterback.

He delivered an early payoff with a goal in the 2023 Concacaf Nations League final, and scored twice in last year’s Copa América group stage — one of the only U.S. players who wasn’t a flop in the tournament.

But then came those injuries, halting his momentum and that of the national team. We’ll never know how much better things could have gone at this year’s Nations League final four had Balogun been there.

“Last year was frustrating, being out for so long with a shoulder injury, but all I can do is just focus on the present and focus on what I can control,” Balogun said. “I’ve had the game[s], obviously, in the last camp [in September], and that was just important for me to be around the team again and just to reintegrate. And for me it’s about building momentum, consistently being a part of the team, and being available — the most important thing for any athlete is to be available.”

When he said that, no one thought to ask if he knew that phrase was popularized by another former New Yorker years ago. But then again, Balogun was six months from being born when Bill Parcells departed the Jets in January 2001. (Of the current U.S. squad’s 26 players, only 38-year-old Tim Ream was alive when Parcells left the Giants in 1990.)

“I want to prove that to myself, prove that to the coaching staff,” Balogun said of hoping to stay healthy. “And, yeah, I think once I’m on the pitch, and the longer I’m on the pitch, building confidence, good things are going to happen. It’s a process, but I’m definitely happy with how it’s going.”

So is manager Mauricio Pochettino.

“Well, what I like the most is that he is scoring,” he said earlier this week, a line that even soccer critics might like. “When they score is what I like the most in a striker. And then I think, his work ethic: available to drop and to play and to connect.”

As Pochettino spoke, he was interrupted by a banging noise from a nearby wall. Alas, it did not come from a chorus of those critics wishing to thank him. It was just the wind outside, flying down from the Rockies and slamming into a closed door.

“I think [there are] many things about the game, not only to score — that is what I like the most — but also it’s the capacity to link with the team,” Pochettino said. “He’s a player who can drop and play, as you see with our offensive players and midfielders, and going to the [open] space, running. [He] has a little bit of everything that I like.”

‘Really good for this squad’

Just as significant as Balogun’s form and skills are the players around him. Pochettino’s 3-4-2-1 formation allows for the striker to get service in multiple ways, from the wingbacks out wide and the attacking midfielders more centrally. The ball might come through the air or on the ground, via a cross or via a threaded ball up the middle — the kind Balogun fizzed home against Japan.

“He’s taken his opportunities, and that’s all you can ask for [from] a No. 9,” fellow New Yorker Tim Weah said, referring to a striker’s traditional jersey number. And he would know, as a former forward who now plays as one of those wingbacks for the U.S. and Italian club Juventus.

“We all know he’s an amazing player and he can help us save a game,” Weah continued. “He’s sticking his foot out in actions, he’s running behind, fighting the defenders. … Hopefully we can feed him some more and get him some more goals.”

Nor is it a coincidence that the assist for Balogun’s goal vs. Japan came from Christian Pulisic, and the one for his goal vs. Ecuador on Friday came from Malik Tillman. Their dynamism and creativity sets up Balogun to be his best, and that’s a big part of why they’re now atop the attacking midfield depth chart.

Weston McKennie can add another element, as can Alejandro Zendejas, Brenden Aaronson, or Gio Reyna if he can regain a place on the squad.

“He’s always going off the back shoulder — he’s really difficult to deal with, because he’s always dribbling, going at players, and also going in behind,” the Medford-born Aaronson said. “He’s got two different [ways] that he can play: He can hold up the game, and he can also go in behind and create chances by himself. He’s a really good player, and he’s really good for this squad.”

Balogun appreciates how he fits in with his teammates, and with Pochettino’s system.

“I feel like the manager gives us that freedom to just do what we want up there, and I think that shows in the way we play,” he said. “Everything’s kind of just freestyle. But we’re good enough players to figure it out, and he believes in us.”

As Balogun has grown into the U.S. team on the field, he has grown into the country off it, too. Though he was born in Brooklyn, he moved to London with his Nigerian parents after just a month. He has spent his entire professional career in Europe, only able to visit the United States for national team games and too-rare vacations.

So he makes the most of those moments when he can.

“I love being back here — especially in New York, my favorite city,” he said. “I definitely feel like I get my trips in. I would like more, and after my career, I think it’s somewhere I would like to live. Being in Europe, balancing that with international football, I’m not going to get as much time as I want, but I definitely feel like I do get enough time there.”

U.S. fans in Philadelphia might have to forgive Balogun next month for his choice of city. But they know as well as his team that right now, he’s on the way to the greatest trip home of all.