Ex-Arsenal forward scores 8 league goals in a row | OneFootball

Eight straight league games have brought Balogun to the edge of the best scoring run seen in France this century.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Former Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun is one goal away from matching the longest scoring streak in Ligue 1 this century after scoring in his eighth successive league match at the weekend.

Balogun’s talent was never in doubt during his Arsenal days. He was prolific in the academy, but left in 2023 amid a sense that impatience had shaped the move, and it has taken time for his career away from north London to settle into a convincing rhythm.

Now, though, the numbers are beginning to look serious again. This season he has 18 goals in all competitions, with 12 of them coming in the league. Across his last 10 matches he has produced 10 goal contributions, and his current scoring streak has come against Lens, Angers, PSG, Stade Brest, Lyon, Marseille, Paris FC and Auxerre.

That run is now the second-longest scoring streak in Ligue 1 in the 21st century. Only Sonny Anderson’s 11-game sequence for Lyon in 2001 stands above it, leaving Balogun within sight of a notable record if he can keep the run going.

Still only 24, he remains under contract until 2028 and is still valued at €30m, the same figure Arsenal received when they sold him. For a player whose progress after leaving the club once looked uneven, this is the clearest sign yet that he is beginning to turn promise into sustained senior output.