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In the 21st round of Ligue 1 in midweek, Mbappe's two missed points and early departure due to injury were certainly the most notable news, while 21-year-old Reims youngster Fullarin Balogón's hat-trick also set off a small climax. There are two reasons, one is that Balogun has scored 14 league goals this season (20 games), surpassing Mbappe by one to grab the top spot in the Ligue 1 top scorers; The second is that Balogon is the youngster of Premier League leader Arsenal on loan, and it cannot but make people sigh that there is such a treasure among the "forgotten people" of the Gunners.
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In fact, Balogon already showed his face last weekend, scoring his team's tiebreaker in the sixth minute of stoppage time in Reims' 1-1 draw away to Paris Saint-Germain. At that time, due to Verratti's early red card, Paris were suspected of preserving their condition for the Champions League, so Balogon's goal did not cause much of a sensation. However, the young man himself was still very hearted, and after scoring the goal, he ran to the corner position to imitate the celebratory gesture of Arsenal legend Henry. Later, he also revealed through social media that he had a conversation with Henry before the game, and this was done to pay tribute to his predecessors.
It was clear that Balogon wanted to use the legend as an example, and soon he did something amazing again. Reims won 4-2 at home to Lorient and the Gunners scored three goals to start the comeback, reverse the score and seal the win. The first was a penalty hit, the second was a diagonal pass in front of goal, and the third goal was the most exciting: central defender Abado crossed the halfway line and diagonally crossed the long pass, and Balogon used his speed to cross the defense and shoot directly with his left foot on the left side of the box, catching the opposing goalkeeper by surprise.
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Decisive and precise, the 21-year-old Balogon scored his first hat-trick. Prior to this, the Nigerian descent, who was born in New York and grew up in the United Kingdom, actually scored very few goals in the senior team. As a member of Arsenal's academy career, he started playing for the Gunners' first team in 2020-21 and has only scored two goals in the Europa League in the last three years. Of course, Balogon has also played very little time at Arsenal, making a total of only 10 appearances in official matches. He was loaned to Middlesbrough last season and was not particularly outstanding in the Championship, contributing three goals and three assists in nine starts and nine substitutes in the half season.
After spending money on loan at Ligue 1 Reims last summer, Balogon suddenly entered a burst of time, with his 14 league goals not just on the hot form of four goals in the last two rounds, but on five in his first six Ligue 1 appearances. In addition, he also scored 1 goal in 1 game in the French Cup. In other words, under Reims' former coach Oscar Garcia, Balogon was already the team's ace scorer, and firefighting coach Will Steele, who took over mid-season, continued the boys' "normal form".
The gunners "rolled up"
At present, the main formation of Reims is 4231, with Balogon as the arrow figure at the front. The young man is not very tall (the data shows 1.78 meters), but he seems to be able to skillfully provide cover for his teammates with his back to the Ligue 1 defender. Of course, as an attacking pillar with more than half of his team's goals (Reims league total 26), Balogun is most commendable for his sense of goal, as evidenced by the last two goals against Lorient. In this regard, Balogon is actually somewhat similar to Nketiah, who has also been popular in the Premier League recently. In addition, the speed and dexterity of the young man do not need to be mentioned, and the dignitude of Donnarumma in the absolute breakthrough of Paris is definitely considered to be a job under his feet.
Although Balogon's penalty kicks are not too small (four), it is "double" compared to the likes of Kylian Mbappe (13/2), Jonathan David (12/2) and Neymar (12/2) in the top scorers, but this does not prevent his statistics from impressive. It must be known that the current La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga scorers do not have more than 14 goals (Lewandowski 14, Ossimon 14, Phil Kruger 13), so among the five major European leagues, only Haaland (25) and Kane (16) of the Premier League have scored more goals than the Balogun League. Considering that Balogon will not turn 22 in July this year, he is the most scored under-21 player in Europe's top five leagues.
There is already an Nketia at home who has been making contributions from the "regularization" of the spare tire, and now the Balogon on loan is so eye-catching that it cannot help but make many gunners fans happy. In this regard, someone quipped: "Is there still a place for Jesus?" If you don't come back from injury, you may be reduced to a 'third center'. Some people are also starting to "worry" about next season's set-up: "Three good goalscorers are probably not available, who will Arteta sell?" Of course, these are half-jokes, as we all know that the overall level of Ligue 1 is at the bottom of the five major leagues, and the fact that Balogon can shine as the main core of the middle and lower reaches here (Reims is 11th with 29 points from 21 rounds) does not mean that he can also kill all sides after returning to the Premier League.
However, the fact that players on loan can be fully developed and show more talent is always a great deal for the club Arsenal, especially since Balogon's loan contract does not include any buyout clause - the purpose of sending the young striker out from the beginning is to be better used in the future. In fact, not only Balogon, but also Nuno Tavares, another Arsenal player on loan in Ligue 1, also performed well. The 23-year-old Portuguese left-back was once considered "attacking but not defending" in the Premier League, but in Marseille's 3421 system, his attacking talent has been fully unleashed at left-wing-back, scoring five goals in Ligue 1.
While Tavares is still hot-headed at times, as was the case with his red card against Montpellier in January, he has been impressive in attacking impact and passing beyond that. In this round of Ligue 1, the Portuguese broke through with the ball to create chaos and let the opponent Nantes' defender score an own goal. It is worth mentioning that since Arsenal already have Zinchenko and Tierney at left-back, Tavares had hoped that the two clubs would add a buyout option to their loan contracts before arriving at Marseille last summer, but manager Arteta rejected the request, seemingly feeling that the Portuguese had retention value. For now, such a smart choice is a smart choice, and Tavares' flash in Ligue 1 could buy him future time at the Arsenal, or it could fetch him a higher price when he actually transfers.
Author: Yan Yu
This article was originally published in the Sports Plus app
The image comes from the Internet