Folarin Balogun

Balogun's World Cup ended in the round of 16 on 6 July, when Belgium eliminated the USA 4-1 in Seattle, the last of the tournament's three co-hosts to go out before the quarter-finals. The tie followed a red card: Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the USA's 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 July, having scored the opening goal before his dismissal , and FIFA's Appeal Committee suspended the resulting ban that same week, clearing him to face Belgium; the suspension came within a day of a reported telephone call from President Donald Trump to FIFA president Gianni Infantino lobbying for the reversal. The disciplinary question outlived his own tournament: on 14 July, 72 members of the European Parliament wrote to the heads of all 27 European football associations calling for an investigation into the decision that had cleared him to play.

Balogun is an Anglo-American striker who chose to represent the United States after coming through Arsenal's academy and playing for England at youth level, Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised partly in New York. He starred on loan at Reims in Ligue 1, scoring 21 league goals in 2022-23, before moving to Monaco, and switched international allegiance to the US in late 2023.

Balogun scored twice in the USA's 4-1 win over Paraguay on 12 June, the co-host opener, the first two-goal World Cup performance by a USMNT player since 1930 , and added the USA's consolation goal in a 3-1 defeat to Germany on 6 June. His scoring form made him Pochettino's first-choice striker, and the reported presidential intervention that cleared him for the Belgium tie turned a football story about the USA's leading forward into a debate about FIFA's disciplinary neutrality.