Alexandre Lacazette left Arsenal over the summer to go back to Lyon. Before he moved back to France, he talked to his old teammate Folarin Balogun about his future.
Folarin Balogun, a striker for Arsenal, has talked about how Alexandre Lacazette helped him decide to go on loan to Reims.
Balogun played his first game in the Premier League at the start of last season. He started against Brentford, but they beat them 2-0. But that was one of only four times he played for the first team. He spent the rest of the 2021-22 season on loan at Championship team Middlesbrough.
Hugo Ekitike was going to play for PSG, so Reims brought in Balogun to replace him. In his first six games with Reims, Balogun has scored five goals. And the 21-year-old, who made his debut for England’s under-21 team in 2021, has talked about what Lacazette told him.
In an interview with Amazon Prime Video Sport, Balogun said of Lacazette, “He’s a great player.” “When he was at Arsenal, he always helped me get better by showing me new techniques and giving me tips.
“I remember talking to Lacazette, and he kept telling me, ‘You need to go to Ligue 1; you’ll do well there.'” He knows a lot about football, so maybe he should be my agent as well!”
Reims has had a rough start to the season. In their first six Ligue 1 games, they only won one. Balogun scored from the penalty spot in that 4-2 win at Angers, and he also scored against Marseille, Clermont, Strasbourg, and Lens.
Balogun has also said that moving abroad will help him learn more about the world. He is not the first player from the Arsenal academy to spend time on loan in another European League. Emile Smith Rowe played for RB Leipzig, Ainsley Maitland-Niles finished last season at Roma, and Reiss Nelson played in Germany and the Netherlands.
Balogun said, “I’ve spent my entire career in London, so I knew coming here would be different. I didn’t know the language, and I’m still trying to learn it, but I think it’s important to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.” “This is why I’m here, and I hope this choice will help me and pay off.”
Lacazette, on the other hand, has scored goals again since he went away for five years and came back to Lyon. In August, Balogun’s Reims team beat the former Arsenal record signing, who has scored three goals in five Ligue 1 games this season.
They are not the only two Arsenal players who score goals in Ligue 1. Alexis Sanchez has three goals for the season after moving from Inter Milan to Marseille. Nuno Tavares, who joined Marseille on loan from Arsenal, also has three goals for the season.