Folarin Balogun has signed his first professional contract with Arsenal, the club announced on February 13th.

Arsenal posted the update on the club website, revealing that the 17-year-old had put pen to paper on a new professional deal in North London. The news comes as a relief to followers of the academy sides, who saw the player’s 17th birthday come and go without a new deal last July. Fortunately, his situation is now resolved.

Balogun has been the u18s’ in-form striker this season, with 13 goals and two assists in 15 league matches. He also scored two goals and assisted one in three FA Youth Cup games before Arsenal’s elimination from the competition.

The England and USA u18 international has made a couple of appearances from the bench for the u23s as well, though he’s currently behind Tyreece John-Jules and Eddie Nketiah for the top academy side.

Speaking to the Arsenal website, Balogun admitted that things are going well for him this year, and he’s hoping to finish the campaign as the u18 Premier League top scorer.

“It’s been a good season so far and I’m scoring a lot of goals, so I just want to keep scoring and continue helping the team week in, week out,” Balogun said. “Individually my goal is to finish the season as the top goalscorer in the U-18 Premier League.

“It’s really good (seeing Emile, Joe and Eddie in the first team). You see them every day walking around the academy, so it makes you think if they can do it, why can’t I?”

Let’s hope Balogun can follow in the footsteps of the trio of academy graduates. Congratulations to the youngster on his new deal!

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