Folarin Balogun has revealed that amid interest from Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, he only wanted to join AS Monaco.

Folarin Balogun was a transfer target for a number of clubs over the summer, with Inter Milan, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, and Chelsea all reportedly interested in him.

The Arsenal academy striker ended up returning to Ligue 1 instead, joining AS Monaco.

Discussing the transfer last week, Balogun insisted it wasn’t hard to turn down the likes of Chelsea and Spurs for Monaco.

“In the end, when Monaco were interested it was, really, an easy decision for me,” Balogun said. “I told my agent this is the only place I wanted to go. And luckily for me, he made it happen.”

As for why it was such an easy decision for Balogun, the striker explained his thought process.

“I feel like, for me, it was important to obviously go to a side that’s competing to win stuff,” Balogun continued.

“They’re a really big team in the French league. And at the same time I want to play games. I want to be able to prove myself, and prove to people around that I’m capable of playing and being the main striker for a team.”

Balogun ended up completing a €40m (£34.3m) transfer, with Arsenal having a 17.5% sell-on clause in the deal.

Arsenal have profited from a few sell-on clauses lately, with Konstantinos Mavropanos (10%) and Matteo Guendouzi (15%) among the players to help send money to north London this summer.

Balogun scored 22 goals on loan with Stade de Reims last season, making 39 appearances in all competitions, numbers he’ll now want to replicate with his new permanent club.