After months of reflecting on the U.S. men’s national team’s 2026 World Cup run, manager Mauricio Pochettino has just one regret: he didn’t step in enough during Folarin Balogun’s red card controversy.
The star striker, who was not included in the USMNT’s fall international camp, quickly found himself at the center of scandal in the knockout stages. He was sent off with a red card for a foul against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, before FIFA made the unprecedented decision to suspend his one-game ban, enabling him to play in the eventual 4–1 round of 16 loss to Belgium.
It was soon unearthed that the decision, made just 24 hours before kickoff against Belgium, came after U.S. President Donald Trump made a phone call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, embroiling Balogun, the USMNT and FIFA in intense political discourse.
Speaking to Andrés Cantor of Futbol de Primera at the U.S. Soccer training facilities in Fayetteville, Ga., Pochettino admitted that he wished he had handled the situation better and demanded a more active role in the conversations that were taking place.
“Maybe I regret not having been more involved in the situation that later generated all of the negativity afterwards,” Pochettino said in Spanish. “Maybe I regret not being more involved in that decision-making process. I wasn’t involved in that decision to overturn the red card. As a football person, I understand everything…Beyond whether we were right or not [about the call on the field], I think nobody understood how it happened.”
While Balogun has admitted that he was uncomfortable with how the affair played out, Pochettino had not previously publicized his own perspective.
“As a football person, where many times we have that emotional intelligence, [we know] that energy can change things,” Pochettino added. “I think that energy changed the minute that happened. And by then, the game is played under different parameters, and that match was never a match where I believe the tactics, strategy or selection of players would have changed the course of what happened during the game.”
Pochettino’s men—including Balogun, who featured in the starting lineup—were easily trounced by Belgium, appearing shellshocked from the opening whistle.
Enter for the Chance to Win the Ultimate Classic Football Shirts Coffee Book (U.S. only)
The Balogun Scandal Grew Too Big
Pochettino also aired frustrations about how the decision was made, citing a lack of structure and alluding to several unaffiliated people seemingly becoming involved in some capacity or another, most notably Trump and Infantino. Other federations and sporting officials soon had much to say about the red card reversal.
“That’s something we’ve talked about internally,” Pochettino said. “I think that these types of things have to be managed under a much more limited structure, a structure where decisions have to be made by very few people, where very few people manage these types of things. [Those decisions] should be strictly sporting and common sense, beyond whether a rule or a committee can say one thing or another.”
Since the controversy and World Cup elimination, Balogun’s life hasn’t gotten any easier. He suffered a failed move to the Premier League’s Everton, sending transfer Deadline Day into a multi-club spiral. Choosing to remain at AS Monaco, he has since fallen down the depth chart. Due to a small nagging knee injury, he was also not included in Pochettino’s 28-man roster for the expanded September–October window, which features four friendlies.
The U.S. will face Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada with a largely inexperienced roster, featuring 13 uncapped players. Balogun’s next opportunity to represent his nation won’t come until November’s Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals, where he’ll hope the trail of scandal finally tapers off.
