Folarin Balogun reveals how Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette advised him to leave Arsenal

Young Arsenal star Folarin Balogun has revealed that former teammates Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette have been pressuring him to go to France on loan.

Balogun is currently enjoying a very productive loan spell at Reims, scoring eight goals and providing two assists in 15 appearances.

Although he has made just ten appearances for the Gunners to date, Balogun enjoys an excellent reputation, thanks in part to his form for the England U21 side, with whom he has scored seven goals in 13 appearances.

There was a lot of interest in the 21-year-old from English clubs after spending the last half of last season on loan at league club Middlesborough, where he impressed despite a poor goalscoring record.

It was therefore surprising to see him move to Ligue 1, but the striker has now shown that he was motivated by the two former Arsenal stars who enjoyed great success in France.

“I spoke to Laca and Nico before making the switch,” Balogun told The Athletic.

Laca told me that he thinks it’s a good competition for me and that I should go and play. Then Laca left and I talked to Nico when we were on the pre-season tour in America.

“He then saw that I was a bit upset because I didn’t play. He just said to stay positive, keep working hard and then he said maybe he should consider a loan to the French league.

“I’m sure you can do well in this competition if you give your best.” He challenged me to score 10 goals in the league and said, “If you can do that, you’ve progressed.”

“He just gave me a lot of encouragement. I took it on board, but at the same time I didn’t think too much about it. I later heard the interest from France and I’m sure what he said was somewhere in the back of my mind.”

As mentioned, Balogun is already well on his way to double digits for Reims, which will help his development immensely if he is to challenge Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah in the Arsenal pecking order.

Lacazette and Pepe both earned big money to join the Emirates thanks to big Ligue 1 successes in Lyon and Lille respectively.

After a decent five years in North London, striker Lacazette returned to Lyon on the loose in the summer and started as he had finished this season with nine goals in 15 games.

Meanwhile Pepe, still Arsenal’s record signing, is trying to get his best form back on loan at Nice after struggling under Mikel Arteta. So far, the winger has scored six goals in 18 appearances.