Mail Online

England and USA in tug of war over Balogun

ENGLAND will select Folarin Balogun for this summer’s Under-21 Euros despite the threat of the Arsenal striker switching allegiances to the United States. The 21-year-old, who has scored 17 league goals on loan at Reims this season, is reported to have travelled to Orlando, where the USA are training before facing Grenada and El Salvador. Balogun, who has played through the England age groups and has seven goals for the Under 21s in 13 appearances, is debating his international future and is also eligible for Nigeria. Balogun has pulled out of two crucial friendlies ahead of the summer Euros due to injury, while boss Lee Carsley insisted that he will continue to pick him amid the uncertainty.

‘Yes, I would,’ said Carsley. ‘I can only go off the relationship that we’ve got and the conversation that we’ve had.

‘He’s never given me any inkling that he’s looking elsewhere. Whether that will change when he is too old for the Under 21s, that may be different.

‘He said he is looking forward to

By JACK GAUGHAN

the summer and all the rest of it so will obviously follow that up after camp.

‘Flo obviously completed 90 minutes on Sunday (for Reims), felt an injury that he’s had previously. Their doctor has confirmed that with our doctor. So you can only take what they’re saying to be accurate.’ England lost Brighton right back Tariq Lamptey to Ghana and Carsley maintained that the FA cannot ‘twist someone’s arm’ to pledge their future to them. ‘I’ll make a point of going over and meeting Flo,’ Carsley added. ‘With going back to Tariq, the conversations I had were always around, “You’re highly rated, you’ve got a really good chance if you keep progressing,” but that was never, “You’re going to play for our seniors”.

‘We can’t promise that because it’s not fair. It would be a lie. Ultimately, and I was talking to one of the players yesterday about this, they are all massively in control of where they go and how fast they get there.’

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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