American-born forward Folarin Balogun has joined Middlesbrough on loan through the end of the season in search of more first team minutes.
Arsenal have given four appearances to Balogun this season, but the 20 year-old, US-born player has failed to break into the first team. These appearances have come on the back of his incredible form in Arsenal’s U23 squad playing in the Premier League II, which has seen him sore 13 goals and rack up 3 assists in 11 games.
Balgun, born in New York City, has two Premier League appearances and two Carabao Cup appearances for the Arsenal first team this season, with his recent minutes more than likely serving to put him in the shop window for potential loan moves like this.
Middlesbrough sit in seventh place in the Championship and manager Chris Wilder seems to have them on track for a promotion push at the end of the season. Boro have won five out of their last six, and are in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, where they will face Manchester United.
Wilder made a statement that he had tried to sign the young American for his former team Sheffield United back in 2020.
The pair now meet with Wilder heaping praise on the youngster, telling the club’s website “We’re delighted to get Flo in. He’s a player I’ve known about for a long time and we identified him as someone who could come in and improve us in the second half of the season.”
“He has great movement, good pace, and he’s a natural finisher. We’re looking forward to working with him.”
The player is looking forward to the next several months at Middlesbrough, even if it’s a “bit chilly” compared to London as he said in his first interview as a Boro player. He went on to tell the club’s official website: “The club are on a good run of form so first and foremost I want to add to that, and help the team as I develop myself.”
“To the fans, I’m going to give 100%, I’m somebody who likes to please the fans. Wether that’s by goals or assists or bits of trickery in between. I’m going to play as myself and as I know how to and I think it’s going to be fun.”
The young striker will look to keep his foot on the gas as he continues to grow, hoping to help lead Middlesbrough back to the Premier League.
