U.S. Men’s National Team striker Folarin Balogun’s prospective return to the Premier League is off after the 25-year-old former Arsenal academy star pulled out of a move to Everton at the last minute.
Tuesday at 11pm BST (5pm ET) marked the deadline in the English summer transfer window, and despite a last gasp effort to secure Balogun’s signature by the Toffees, which would have netted AS Monaco some much-needed funds, the deal ultimately fell through in dramatic fashion.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday after the dust had settled, Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro gave a fascinating insight into exactly what went wrong on Tuesday between the clubs and Balogun, and what the future may hold for the World Cup star - who was at the center of one of the tournament's biggest controversies.
Admitting that the club’s approach to the summer market was to raise funds in order to meet financial regulations, he commented, via Get The Football News France, “Clearly, we were open to discussing and finding a transfer for Balogun. He finished his third season. We had already worked in advance to replace him, and we were fully ready to do this. Things went very well with this strategy until we were almost there.”
Since joining Monaco in 2023 from Arsenal, following loan stints with Middlesbrough and Reims, Balogun has found the back of the net 31 times in 91 games, providing a further 13 assists along the way in all competitions. Last season was particularly fruitful for the forward, scoring 19 goals in 43 appearances.
But with the club in need of funds and Balogun two years away from hitting free agency, Monaco clearly felt it was the right time to cash in, not naming him to any of their matchday squads so far this season and, ultimately, attempting to ship him off to Merseyside.
“During the day, we had a clear agreement for Balogun to go to Everton. Balogun flew yesterday morning to go for medicals and sign a contract,” Scuro said. “Our plan worked very well in this moment in terms of revenue generation, squad planning, player transfers.
“Thilo [Kehrer] going (to Ajax), as announced, opened the space in the salary that we needed with the DNCG (French football’s financial watchdog). Balogun, besides the salary, was also an important source of income for the club, which would help us also to balance the season.”
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However, things began to unravel on Tuesday evening, as Scuro detailed. “Around 7 pm, we were contacted by Everton, raising questions about Balogun’s medical, which, for our medical staff, as well as for the player’s personal medical staff, made no sense at all,” he said.
“The explanations were not enough to justify or to bring concerns regarding the future of the player, which there aren’t. This discussion started between medical departments from here and there.
“It took Everton around 2-3 hours to go deep into the assessment and check with other doctors. This is a normal situation when the doctor of the club raises concerns. It’s quite normal that clubs will look for other specialists, share the images and discuss the case. This was ongoing.”
Around three hours passed by which point Everton gave the move the green light. However, in need of more time to finalize the deal, the teams triggered a Premier League rule allowing for an extension of an hour to complete a last-minute move.
“The Premier League has a mechanism in which you can request one extra hour to finish the paperwork. This was done,” he said. “Five minutes to close the transfer window there, for us to finish all the paperwork between Monaco and Everton and ‘Balo’. I signed the contract. Everton signed the contract.
“At the last moment, the players decided not to sign. And basically, Balogun’s allegation is that I’m not feeling well because of the way the club treated me. I’m not feeling well because Everton’s medical department raised doubts about my future or my health. I have nothing (no health problem), so I’m not comfortable signing a long contract here. And that’s the way we finish our transfer window.”
All the while, with Monaco in need of funds and Balogun failing his medical, Monaco agreed to sell Lamine Camara to Chelsea, with the Blues on the lookout for a replacement for Enzo Fernandez, who moved to Manchester City for $169.1 million earlier that day.
But when Everton approved Balogun’s medical, Monaco called off the sale of Camara - only then for the American to pull out of the move.
“So basically, the story about those two players and what happened yesterday was also new for me,” Scuro noted. “It’s the first time in my career that I saw a last day (deadline day) like this.
“It’s not nice to stay the last two days of the transfer window until 3 a.m. in the office, trying to find solutions here and there. And this is something that we need to try to do better as a club, because it puts everyone in a situation where what is happening can happen. And it’s not nice to be here, having to explain and having to face all the consequences of this.
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“And the reality is now that we are very, very happy that Lamine stayed. We want to be strong on the pitch. We want to grow this season, and we are going for that. And now we are still waiting for ‘Balo’ to come back for us to sit and discuss and to realize between us what’s next.
“We still have other markets open, which we are having discussions about with different players, including ‘Balo’. Let’s see what can still happen until Thursday, because we still have markets that have the financial capacity to do something. And this is what happened, and this is where we are today.”