England to persuade Balogun to snub Nigeria, USMNT

England is making significant strides in their bid to lure Folarin Balogun to commit his international future to the Three Lions.

Balogun, 21, was born in New York City to Nigerian parents before his family moved to the UK at the age of 2.

The ex-Middlesbrough man is therefore eligible to represent either England, the USA, or Nigeria on the international stage.

With his international future still hanging in a balance, the Coach of England's U-21 team, Lee Carsley has disclosed that he will travel to France next week to hold talks with the Arsenal loanee to try to convince him to snub the United States by representing England at the international level.

"That is the plan. You're always going to miss a player with that knack of scoring. He's going to have to make a decision, so all we can do is tell him how much we rate him. The rest is down to him," he told reporters.

"I'll just be making the point of how important he is to us. Hopefully, we can talk a little bit about patience and understanding that he is going to have to keep doing what he's doing to break through to the senior team. Like a lot of players in our squad, we've got a lot of players that are pushing. Hopefully, he can see that. I've been there myself as a young player, you're in a rush and you want to get there quickly. Hopefully, I can convince him."

Balogun has represented the United States at the U-18 level and England at the U-20 and U-21 levels.

The Arsenal loanee to Reims has been in remarkable goal-scoring form this season, after scoring 18 goals in 29 appearances across all competitions.

WDN