United States men’s national team striker Folarin Balogun hasn’t given up on a return to the Premier League, a month after his deadline-day move to Everton fell apart.
Asked by talkSPORT whether a Premier League move still interested him, the 25-year-old called it a possibility.
“I was close to a transfer,” Balogun said. “It didn’t materialise, but for sure it’s definitely an option.”
Balogun, who came through Arsenal’s academy before joining Monaco on a permanent transfer in 2023, remains with the Ligue 1 club after a summer that put him at the center of two major controversies.
“Football has many twists and turns as we’ve seen after the World Cup,” Balogun said.
Everton had a deal in place to sign Balogun from Monaco for a reported £40 million ($54 million), but it collapsed in the final minutes of the Sept. 1 transfer deadline.
(Photo by Sathire Kelpa/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro later laid out the timeline at a news conference. According to Scuro, Balogun took his medical at Everton that afternoon, and about three hours later, Everton came back with questions about the results that he said “made no sense at all” to Monaco’s medical staff and the player’s own doctors. After the two clubs’ medical teams talked, Everton said it was ready to complete the signing.
At the last moment, Balogun decided not to sign. Scuro said the striker told Monaco he wasn’t comfortable committing to a long contract after Everton raised doubts about his health.
Balogun was the United States’ top scorer at the World Cup with three goals, but his tournament ended in controversy.
(Photo by Maja Hitij – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
