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USMNT’s Folarin Balogun Refuses to Celebrate Goal for Monaco Against Former Club Reims

Folarin Balogun scored a key goal for Monaco, but decided against celebrating in classy move.

Tyler Lauletta

USMNT’s Folarin Balogun Refuses to Celebrate Goal for Monaco Against Former Club Reims
USMNT’s Folarin Balogun Refuses to Celebrate Goal for Monaco Against Former Club Reims /

22-year-old American soccer player Folarin Balogun scored a key goal for Monaco against his former club Reims on Saturday.

Just seconds into the second half, Balogun found the back of the net. But rather than sprint into elation, Balogun lifted his hands and softly gestured to the crowd, refusing to celebrate.

The move was a show of sportsmanship and respect to his former club. Before joining Monaco, Balogun had spent last season out to Reims on loan from Arsenal, and scored 22 goals in 39 appearances for the club.

The goal was Balogun’s third of the Ligue 1 season, and Monaco would go on to win the match 3–1.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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