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Young Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun wants to stay at Arsenal.
That is according to Mikel Arteta speaking after the 19-year-old produced another impressive cameo in the Europa League away to Dundalk on Thursday night.
Coming on as a second-half substitute, he set-up Joe Willock for the third goal and then got on the score sheet himself with a confident first-time finish after a pass from Nicholas Pépé. That as his second goal in three appearances in the competition.
The striker, who is eligible to play for both the USA and England, is out of contract at the end of the season and has previously indicated that he wanted to leave on a free transfer, frustrated with his lack of first-team opportunities.
However, Arteta has become to try and integrate him into his first-team squad, and is trying to convince Balugun to stay. And it looks like he may have had some success with the Spaniard saying “He said to me that he wants to stay at the club hopefully we can reach an agreement and extend his contract.”
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.