Arsenal wonderkid can choose to play for three countries, do we really care who he picks? by Martin
Arsenal teenager Folarin Balogun is fast becoming one of the most talked about youngsters in the game, he is scoring for fun in the youth team knocking in 22 goals in 23 appearances and even Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is raving about him and it now seems that international managers are waiting to see which country he decides to play for.
First. let’s see what he personally had to say on the subject.
“I haven’t yet declared who I will commit to internationally,” He told Arsenal.com. “I was born in New York, so can play for the USA. My parents were born in Nigeria and I have been in England since I was two years old, so I can play for both those countries too!
“I have several youth caps playing for England and I enjoy their style of play which is similar to Arsenal’s.
“I will be discussing matters with my parents and will then decide.”
Now, in the headline of this piece I ask, do we really care? I do not think we do really.
If Balogun plumps for Nigeria we no longer have to worry about him leaving us in the middle of winter to play in the African Nations Cup because it is played in the summer and there is a high chance he will be with some Arsenal teammates when he joins up with them, Alex Iwobi as an example.
There is nothing wrong with the USA either, they are a professional set up with good facilities and there is no reason why his game will not be helped playing for the Americans either.
Of course, England is one of the best setups in international football, he will learn a lot playing for the Three Lions and again, he will be with club teammates.
The bottom line is that it really makes no difference to us as a club, you could argue that one has a better medical set up in case of injuries or you could argue one will advance his footballing experience better but who really knows, there are simply too many variables to make a sensible judgement.
For me, whichever one makes him the happiest is the one he should go for, we do not want a player leaving for international duty and coming back all miserable?
Martin