Folarin Balogun has finally got his move away from Arsenal. It took nearly the whole summer, but we always knew it was a matter of where and when, not if. After his breakout on loan with Reims last season, someone bigger would come knocking, and we have waited until the final days of the window to find out who that someone would be.
In the end, it was Monaco, who have completed a deal to keep the U.S. men's national team star in Ligue 1, the league he dominated last season despite playing for its 11th-best team. In moving to Monaco, he's certainly moved up the ladder, although he hasn't taken the leap into the unknown it felt like he would at different points this summer.
That, of course, comes with positives and negatives. On the plus side, the task in front of Balogun will be a somewhat familiar one, as a bigger Ligue 1 club will now ask him to simply continue his goalscoring form from last season. On the negative side, though, is the thought that Balogun could have potentially found himself at a new challenge in a new league, one he hasn't already lit up for 20-plus goals so early in his career.
Either way, this move kind of feels like the move before the move, a gradual step up the ladder that allows him to make an even bigger one if he proves last season wasn't a one-off. He'll face some new challenges at Monaco as he looks to break into a significantly better team, but Balogun's new situation seems set up for him to show what made him a rising star in his old one.
