As Folarin Balogun leans back into his chair and broadens his shoulders before his interview with football.london, he appears perfectly at ease. It’s slightly ironic as this is the exact sensation he came to France to get away from.
After the end of an intense loan spell at Middlesbrough and limited game time on Arsenal’s pre-season tour of America, the 21-year-old had a decision to make. Traditionally a player in his position might have looked to continue his development closer to their comfort zone. Balogun however, wanted to take a “risk".
The decision was taken to swap the tumultuousness of London for the tranquillity of Reims. Armed with little more than the “bonjour” and “ça va” he had learned in GCSE French, Balogun headed to the Champagne country for the season hoping to pop the cork on his undoubted potential. Thus far it couldn’t have gone much better for him.
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His strike against Marseille over the weekend made him the youngest player since 1956 to reach a tally of 17 Ligue 1 goals and if he scores one more the 21-year-old will equal Glenn Hoddle's record for the most goals scored by an Englishman in a single French top flight season. Perhaps most eye-catchingly, Balogun is comfortably outscoring global superstars Lionel Messi and Neymar. This gives him little satisfaction however,
“Honestly, it doesn’t really do anything for me," he says of the comparisons to the PSG giants. "It would be very fickle to think ‘because I’ve got more goals than Messi or Neymar at this point in the season…’. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a credit to my team that I’ve been able to perform well, but I wouldn’t make any comparisons to being ahead of them. I wouldn’t take anything from that.”
Instead, what drives Balogun is a constant desire for self-improvement. The 21-year-old has had plenty of good games in France, but it’s the bad ones that he insists he learns the most from, citing a late missed penalty during a 0-0 draw with Nice as one of his biggest learning experiences.
“I speak with people in my team outside of football to evaluate my games," he says. "We see what I’ve done well and what I need to improve on. That’s been a constant theme throughout my career so it’s nothing new to me. The games I haven’t done well are the most useful games. I evaluate my games a lot and I’m very harsh on myself which is good for me to develop.”
This level of introspection is not always common among players of Balogun’s age, but, then again, the 21-year-old hasn’t always had the most straight forward rise. Things could have been so different for the youngster who did not transition to playing a centre forward until the age of 16. Prior to that he was a slightly underwhelming winger in the Arsenal academy set up sleepwalking towards the end of his dream of making it as a professional footballer. It was at this point that a rude awakening from his coaches at Hale End changed that trajectory.
"Not a lot of players get told the reality of the situation when they’re young," he says reflecting on that time. “I definitely got told when I was 15-16, that I wasn’t doing enough and that I needed to improve my attitude and parts of my game. That was the year we were getting told if we were getting scholarships so the reality hit me quickly. I’m not somebody who needs to be told two or three times.
“After that conversation I just got my head down and luckily I turned things around really quickly. The following season I was top goal scorer and got my first international call up so it definitely built character and it’s the same traits that are with me today, for sure.”
That journey from flailing as a winger to flourishing as a centre forward is one Balogun has in common with an Arsenal legend – Thierry Henry. The pair have struck up a bond off the pitch, and Balogun cites the Gunners record goalscorer as a useful sounding board as he continues his journey outside of his comfort zone.
“I saw him a few times at the Emirates when I was at Arsenal but it was just passing conversations. The first time I spoke to him in depth was against PSG (a game in which Balogun notched a 96th minute equaliser to earn his side a shock point at the Parc de Princes).
“Funnily enough, he messaged me words of encouragement before the Monaco game, I scored the winner and then we messaged after the game. It’s nice to get to know him on a more personal level. I’m asking him questions and he’s helping me so it’s a nice person to have in your phone.
“It’s nothing seriously in-depth. It’s more akin to conversations between somebody who’s seen the heights of the game and taken steps in his career than I’m now taking in terms of playing in England and playing abroad. He knows the feeling and how uncomfortable it can be so I’m asking more general questions about his career and how he felt at certain points. It’s light-hearted but allows me to take some good advice from him.”
There is one pearl of Henry wisdom that has stuck out in particular for Balogun. While still at Arsenal he had bumped into the Gunners’ record goalscorer prior to the North London Derby. Initially Balogun – who was not in the matchday squad that day – passed Henry without even noticing, before the Frenchman grabbed his hand and preceded to tell him, 'If you think you have the potential to play for Arsenal, then show it.' A couple of years and 17 Ligue 1 goals later does Balogun feel he’s done that yet?
“I haven’t thought that far if I’m honest,” the 21-year-old says. “I’ve just thought about this season. What I’ve been able to do so far, I’m sure it’s making a lot of noise - not just at Arsenal but everywhere. It’s just about continuing that, staying focused and helping the team achieve their maximum potential for this season. That’s as far as I’ve thought.”
This approach is probably a wise one to take for Balogun ahead of what promises to be a fascinating summer. Arsenal loans manager Ben Knapper is in regular contact with the 21-year-old and feeds back reports on his progress to Mikel Arteta and Edu who are understood to be delighted with how the young striker is getting on. At the same time though, the Gunners already have Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah and Leandro Trossard as options in the centre forward position, and Balogun has plenty of interest from across Europe and the Premier League, if they cannot find a place for him in the squad.
It would be enough to unsettle most, but as the interview comes to an end, Balogun is still exuding the calmness and self-belief with which he began. It’s these traits that have got him to where he is now, and these traits that will be crucial as he navigates the next step in his promising career.
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