Ugh, this is terrible
The whole reason I started following Everton was because of Landon Donovan and Tim Howard. Of course, Brian McBride played there, too.
After Everton finally got their act together last year, my excitement right now is sky high.
| Has Balogun missed chance to capitalise on World Cup stardom? |
| The summer of 2026 was meant to be Folarin Balogun’s moment. The World Cup gave him the chance to hit the big time, in front of a U.S. audience. Go well at the finals and a raft of tasty transfer offers would open up in Europe. That was the theory. To an extent, Balogun did go well at the finals, scoring twice in the group stages and once in the round of 32. But between his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the embarrassing mess that followed it, and now an aborted deal to join Everton, I wonder how he’ll reflect on the experience. He’ll probably be ready to forget all about it. It’s genuinely difficult to argue that Everton would have been a good move for him. They’re unlikely to do much more than make up the numbers in the Premier League this season. But Monaco, the 25-year-old’s existing club, aren’t in for much of a year either. Far from giving him more Champions League exposure, they’ve been reduced to Europe’s third competition: the Conference League. Balogun remains central to the USMNT’s plans, and that won’t change any time soon. But if this was the time to take his career to the next level — a window of opportunity which isn’t likely to come again — then he’s missed the boat. Even if he doesn’t rue the decision to turn Everton down, he’ll surely regret his failure to seize the day. |
| Inside negotiations that led to U.S. star walking away from Everton |
| Few clubs experienced a stranger deadline day than Monaco. At one stage, the French side looked set to pull in £47m from Chelsea for Lamine Camara and £39m from Everton for Folarin Balogun. Owing to a shambolic chain of events, they ended up selling neither player. The collapse of Balogun’s proposed transfer to England, documented in full here, was particularly extraordinary. The plane flying him in from France took off later than planned. A study of data alerted Everton to the fact that the USMNT forward had not trained as much over the summer as they would have expected. And about four hours before the 11pm deadline, an issue was flagged with his medical. Monaco’s staff disputed Everton’s concerns, so Everton began looking at alternatives (one of them being Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee). But on reflection, Monaco agreed to keep the Balogun deal alive by restructuring its terms. Essentially, Everton would pay less up front and more in performance-related add-ons. Crisis averted? Sadly not, because the wrangle over Balogun’s fitness left the 25-year-old doubting that Everton was the right move for him. In the words of Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro: “Balogun’s allegation is that, ‘I’m not feeling (good) because of the way the club treated me. I’m not comfortable to sign a long contract here’.” By then, Monaco had already pulled out of the Camara-to-Chelsea sale. The income they anticipated receiving for Balogun rendered it unnecessary. So Everton didn’t get Balogun, Chelsea didn’t get Camara, and Monaco didn’t generate a cent. You’ll do well to find a winner in all this. |
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