The Champions League match Wednesday between Monaco and Arsenal should have been a momentous occasion for Folarin Balogun.
An Arsenal academy product, the striker left London in search of playing time, emerging as a Ligue 1 star on loan with Reims. That loan resulted in a move to Monaco, a Ligue 1 giant, and, on Wednesday, Balogun's current and childhood club collided in the biggest competition in club soccer.
Well, not so much. Monaco announced Tuesday that Balogun wouldn't play due to a shoulder injury, with manager Adi Huttler confirming that Balogun will undergo surgery. The injury also deprived him of the chance to feature against his former club, short-term, as Arsenal won 3-0. But it also has longer-term implications.
The one word to describe everything in Balogun's world these days is unlucky. Which leads to another word: uncertainty. Untimely injuries have led to uncertain situations with both club and country. So much has changed, and generally not as result of anything he's done wrong. Luck or no luck, though, Balogun is no longer a locked-in starter for either Monaco or, for the first time since he joined, for the USMNT.
What it will take for Balogun's luck to turn around? What can he do to get and stay fit for these big games? When fit, how can he rediscover the goalscoring form that made him so dominant with Reims? And, with the 2026 World Cup drawing ever closer, what can he do to prove that he is, in fact, the man for the coach Mauricio Pochettino and U.S. men's national team, despite all of the competition going on around him?