Balogun and Pepi: Future Stars of American Soccer
Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi are heading into the summer as the twin spearheads of a new American attacking generation – and Europe is starting to pay attention.
One has already felt the weight of a superclub. The other has built quietly, steadily, in the slipstream of title winners. Both may soon find the Premier League calling.
Balogun: Arsenal graduate, Monaco finisher
New York-born Balogun grew up in Arsenal’s academy, the latest product of a system that has produced a steady stream of forwards with big expectations attached. The breakthrough never fully arrived at the Emirates – just 10 competitive appearances and two Europa League goals – but he didn’t drift. He detonated.
A loan to Reims changed everything. Twenty-two goals in Ligue 1 turned him from fringe prospect into a €40 million asset, earning a permanent move to Monaco in 2023. This season, he has gone up another level again, hitting 19 goals in all competitions and looking every inch a modern No. 9: sharp movement, direct running, ruthless in transition.
That body of work matters. It’s why, when English clubs scan the continental market for forwards who can walk straight into the intensity and scrutiny of the Premier League, Balogun’s name keeps surfacing.
Brad Friedel, who knows both the league and the pressure around it as well as any American, is in no doubt.
“Balogun could play at one of the big boys and deal with the perception and reality situation,” the former USMNT goalkeeper said, speaking to GOAL in association with MrQ. In his eyes, the Monaco striker already carries the profile of a seasoned European player.
Pepi: Title winner learning in the shadows
Pepi’s route has been different, but no less impressive.
He arrived in Europe at Augsburg in January 2022, a teenager thrown into the unforgiving grind of the Bundesliga. The move to PSV gave him a different environment: a giant of Dutch football, but one where he would have to fight for every start.
He has done exactly that. Minutes have not always come easily in Eindhoven, yet the output tells its own story. Nineteen goals across all competitions while helping PSV to another Eredivisie title is a serious return for a young striker still adapting to the European game.
Friedel sees a player who might need a different kind of landing spot in England.
“Someone like Pepi would need to be one of the mid to lower teams,” he said. “Something like Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham… they’re more mid-tier in terms of expectation and pressure.”
The point is not about status, but about environment. A Manchester United or Arsenal, Friedel believes, would be “too much for him, too quick”. A club that builds carefully, presses smartly and allows a young striker to grow into the role makes far more sense.
Fulham, in particular, intrigues him. Pepi has already been linked.
“If you look at that, you see Raul Jiménez and his style and Pepi’s, they’re very similar,” Friedel explained. He went back to a familiar Fulham reference point for American fans: “It’s almost like how Fulham had Brian McBride going and Clint Dempsey coming in… it’s very similar like that, the comparison of Pepi and Jimenez.”
The message is clear: Pepi has a profile that can slide straight into a Premier League system built around a hard-working, penalty-box forward.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Balogun or Pepi in England next season,” Friedel added. “And I think they could both be successful in the Premier League.”
World Cup battle before club decisions
Before any agents pick up the phone and any bids go in, there is something bigger on the horizon: a home World Cup in 2026.
Balogun and Pepi are not just transfer targets; they are rivals for the same shirt. One starting berth, two ambitious forwards, and a tournament staged on their own soil.
Friedel was asked to strip it back to tactics. If he were in Mauricio Pochettino’s shoes, who leads the line?
“Balogun would be my pick,” he said without hesitation.
The reasoning goes straight to Pochettino’s long-standing preferences. “If you look historically at Pochettino’s teams, he usually likes to have players who play very vertically and who are really dynamic, and that’s more of what Balogun is.”
Pepi, in that scenario, becomes a powerful second act.
“To have the option of Pepi, who again will work really hard, but is very good in the box, good in the air, to come off the bench,” Friedel added, gives the coach a different tool entirely: a penalty-area predator, a late-game problem for tiring defences.
The conditions of a North American World Cup only sharpen that need for rotation. Long club seasons, heavy travel, summer heat.
“I could also see a little bit of a rotation in the group phase,” Friedel said. “It’s also going to be very hot over here. And the players have just come off, those two especially, a long season. So you could see Mauricio maybe wanting to take a different tactical approach against Paraguay and Australia.”
A warning named Turkiye
The group, on paper, offers opportunity. It also carries a trap.
“Hopefully, they have points in the bag by the time they play Turkiye,” Friedel warned. The final group game looms large in his mind. “Because if they’re not careful by the time they get to Turkiye, and they have to win that match, Turkiye is a very talented possession-based team.”
That is where the choice between Balogun’s vertical threat and Pepi’s penalty-box craft could decide more than just a selection debate. It could shape an entire World Cup campaign.
For now, the story is simple: two American strikers, both scoring freely in Europe, both on Premier League shortlists, both eyeing the same starting role on the biggest stage of all.
The next move – club and country – will tell who truly leads this new era of the USMNT attack.
