Folarin Balogun: The ‘super complete’ forward who could become a future Arsenal star

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Arsenal forward Leon Balogun is enjoying a remarkable campaign on loan at Reims this season.

The 21-year-old Gunners talent leapfrogged Kylian Mbappe to the top of the Ligue 1 scoring charts this week.

Balogun scored a hat-trick against Lorient on Wednesday, taking him to 14 league goals for the season.

The Arsenal gem’s efforts helped Reims extend their unbeaten run to 13 games.

And though PSG won their game later on in the day, Mbappe didn’t get on the scoresheet.

It’s a remarkable feat for Balogun, who has progressed so much since a difficult season last time out.

The Arsenal player made the starting XI in the season opener Brentford, only to come off after 59 minutes.

Then, Balogun went on loan to Middlesbrough, but only managed three goals in 18 Championship games for them.

Now, the United States-born forward has 15 goals in all competitions for Reims, as well as two assists.

He also has more league goals than Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who were ruled out of the Brentford game in August 2021.

And there’s more. Balogun netted the late equaliser against PSG last Sunday, an effort and result that left manager Will Still raving about the Gunners gem.

“He is a super complete striker,” the Reims manager said.

“He is able to play with his back to goal, in depth. It is technically very clean. He scores, he is decisive.”

‘Early blow’

As noted by Sky Sports, Balogun isn’t the only Arsenal talent to bounce back from setbacks earlier in his career.

‘Emile Smith Rowe had an injury-laden loan spell at RB Leipzig and came back without an appearance,’ wrote the outlet.

‘Eddie Nketiah sat on the bench at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa and nearly walked away from the club last season doing the same under Arteta.

‘William Saliba was frozen out of the Gunners’ first-team set-up and training with the U23s.

‘Gabriel Martinelli picked up an anterior cruciate ligament injury in 2020 just as he was breaking into the first-team.

‘Bukayo Saka’s meteoric rise couldn’t even go without a Euro 2020 penalty miss.

‘Every Arsenal youngster who is thriving at the moment has suffered an early blow. Arteta wanted the same from Balogun.’

It’ll be exciting to see how Balogun continues to fare this season. Can he go all the way in the Ligue 1 goalscoring race?

Even Mbappe or anyone else overtakes him, Arteta will surely look to the ‘super complete striker’ in pre-season and potentially make him a first-team regular.

The way Balogun has been playing and developing, he could well become another future star at the Emirates.