Folarin Balogun ‘unsure’ of Arsenal future but ‘contractually’ has to go back
Arsenal wonderkid Florian Balogun has hinted that he may be on his way out of the Emirates after a prolific season on loan at Reims in France.
The young striker has been highly rated at Arsenal for a number of years and was given a chance to prove himself abroad with a season under English manager Will Still over in Ligue 1, although he has surpassed many fans' expectations.
Balogun, who's just 21, has 17 goals in 27 games for the French side and when he sat down for a Q&A with the league he admitted that "a lot could change" before the summer transfer window.
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The American-born forward was asked about whether his ideal scenario is heading back to Arsenal and breaking into the first team there. He answered: "Yeah I mean, contractually I have to go back. Because the loan was only for one year so that was always the agreement.
"But I wouldn't, um, I'm not sure what is going to happen in the future. A lot could happen in football, a lot could change, and it just depends on the conversations we have between me and the club in the summer, and we'll see what happens."
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When asked about a potential future in France, he said: "Yeah I mean there's no door that's closed. Of course, I have had a good year here and to a lot of people, it makes sense for me to come back here. So yeah I mean I don't know what the future will bring.
"But definitely I would advise young players to come out here. It's a really, really tough league, a league that will help you to improve. You get to play in crazy atmospheres. If you're ready to take yourself out of your comfort zone, I would advise any young player, I would advise any young player to come here."
The young striker joined Middlesbrough in January last year for five months but only managed to find the net three times in the league for the north east side.
Balogun has a big fan in Mikel Arteta, who handed more game time to Eddie Nketiah this season with Jesus only recently returning from injury. The Spaniard said: "I’m so happy for him. He’s a boy that has a really clear idea of what he wants to do with his career.
"He’s really ambitious, really committed and really brave. We discussed a lot before he made that move whether it was the right place to go and the other choices he had. He was so convinced. I’m really happy for him because he deserves what he’s getting.
“When you look at the numbers and what he is doing, it’s just incredible. It’s very rare to see that.
"But he’s got something special, that’s why we decided to give him a long-term contract and have faith in him and give him the long period that he needs now, because the loan he is having now is really different to the one he had before at Middlesbrough."
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