The U.S. Men’s National Team is getting a post-Independence Day boost in the World Cup after FIFA, on Sunday, surprisingly — and controversially — overturned a one-game ban on Folarin Balogun.
Balogun was supposed to be ineligible for Monday’s round of 16 match against Belgium, the result of being shown a red card after an official’s review of a play in the 45th minute of the U.S.’ round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. But, The New York Times reported on Sunday that President Donald Trump personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino last Wednesday, the same day as the Bosnia and Herzegovina match, asking for a review of the situation. By Sunday morning, FIFA had made Balogun eligible to play.
FIFA isn’t technically invalidating the suspension. Instead, it suspended the suspension for a period of a year, a highly unusual reprieve that marks the first time since 1962 that the organization has paused disciplinary action against a player in the World Cup.
But back then, FIFA’s president didn’t get a call from the president of the United States, one of the World Cup’s host nations, asking the organization to review its decision. And FIFA hadn’t created a “Peace Prize” just for that U.S. president after he pouted about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
While FIFA is soccer’s international governing body, responsible for tournaments like the World Cup, it doesn’t determine the sport’s rules. That responsibility belongs to the International Football Association Board, whose edicts demand a red card for “Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force.” Once a red card is issued, it’s an automatic ejection from the current game, plus what’s supposed to be an unappealable suspension for at least the next game to follow. That’s where it gets funky.
Replays show Balogun, who is the top U.S. scorer in the World Cup with three goals, stepping on the back of Tarik Muharemovic’s leg while both players fought for control of a loose ball, causing Muharemovic’s ankle to roll. Calling it a lunge or “excessive force” is a stretch. Officials clearly didn’t see it as a red card in real time, as they only issued the penalty after stopping play briefly to review video.
Then there’s Messi, yes, that Messi, who wasn’t even part of this game but who many fans have noted on social media was part of a similar play that received no penalty. Commentators widely disagreed that Balogun’s foul deserved a red card, but rarely has a protest over a call changed something as significant as a player’s ban in a World Cup.
Now that the U.S. has Balogun for Monday, the questions shift the other way: How could a one-game punishment with no appeal process be canceled just a day before a match? In announcing its decision, FIFA cited a rule that allows it to “fully or partially suspend” any disciplinary action. It’s the same rule that allowed Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo to avoid serving his full three-game ban after he was red-carded for a foul in a World Cup qualifier against Ireland last November.
With the suspension issue settled (sort of; FIFA can reimpose a ban if Balogun commits another infraction), all attention will be on a player whose background could be an avatar for the international game. Balogun, 25, is Brooklyn-born with Nigerian parents who left New York to raise him in London. He plays professionally for AS Monaco in France’s top-tier Ligue 1; he finished seventh in league scoring with 13 goals in the 2025-2026 season. Because of his birthplace, parentage and upbringing, Balogun could have played for the U.S., Nigeria, or England at the international level, but he committed to the USMNT in 2023.
Now, he has a chance to add to his scoring total while moving the U.S. further in a men’s World Cup tournament than it’s ever been.