How a Phone Call from Trump Changed Everything for US Soccer Star

SEATTLE — At the end of the day — a day before the most significant match in U.S. men’s soccer history — justice was served.

Folarin Balogun, the dynamic U.S. striker who’s scored a goal in each of the three matches he’s played in this World Cup, will play against Belgium in Monday’s massive Round of 16 showdown.

FIFA lifted the highly controversial one-game ban Sunday that would have prevented Balogun from playing against Belgium. He had received a straight red card for accidentally stepping on the right ankle of Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic in Wednesday’s Round of 32 match.

With no evidence of intent by Balogun to harm Muharemovic, and the match referee not even issuing a yellow card in real time before VAR intervened to send him off, justice was served.

The Post has learned exclusively that this justice was served after U.S. Soccer threatened legal action against FIFA for incorrectly applying its video assistant referee process.

A source with intimate knowledge of the process told The Post on Sunday that, despite FIFA’s rules that a case such as Balogun’s cannot be appealed, a group that was led by U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson and COO Dan Helfrich fought the ruling based on VAR having been applied incorrectly.

They immediately put this process into motion Wednesday night after the U.S. defeated Bosnia.

The source said U.S. Soccer attorneys were involved as were White House attorneys, and this went as high up as President Donald Trump, who reached out to FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Infantino told Trump it was a matter, which was already under review by FIFA’s disciplinary committee, for an independent committee. It was the disciplinary committee that ultimately overturned the ban.

After the Balogun decision became public, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”

According to the source, U.S. Soccer presented to FIFA the prospect of bringing in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which acts as the supreme global judiciary for athletic disputes. CAS law is applied in sports cases that require a legal resolution.

CAS gets involved in cases such as doping violations, match fixing, corruption and on-field violence, among other issues.

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“A legal appeal was sent to FIFA,’’ the source said. “They wanted to avoid CAS. The CAS legal was ready to go.’’

In the end, the Balogun case never reached any legal stage as FIFA and its disciplinary committee made its ruling, because FIFA blinked … and made the correct decision.

U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino, who was aware of the process to get Balogun reinstated taking place, said Sunday that he “wasn’t involved’’ in it, adding, “I was focused on trying to prepare the team to face Belgium.’’

“Of course, the [U.S. Soccer] Federation was working really hard to defend our situation,’’ Pochettino said. “My reaction is like everyone who really loves the sport and trusts in the ethics and integrity [of it]. We celebrate that decision. We were punished enough against Bosnia and Herzegovina, playing with 10 men for 30 minutes [because of] a decision that was completely unfair.’’

This ruling isn’t unprecedented. In 2025, FIFA changed a three-game ban of Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, reducing it to a one-game ban.

According to VAR guidelines, slow-motion replay should be used only to identify the exact point of contact on a potential foul. But in the Balogun case, officials used it to determine intent and severity, ignoring that Balogun was simply planting his foot awkwardly in mid-stride while focused on the ball.

This is the premise of the case U.S. Soccer presented in trying to get the ban overturned.

U.S. Soccer was notified of Balogun’s reinstatement at about 9:30 a.m. here Sunday, just as players were about to board the team bus to their training session at the University of Washington.

Needless to say, there was a massive bounce in the step of the players as they took the UW pitch for practice.

“A lot of us thought it was AI at first,’’ defender Chris Richards said. “We didn’t believe it [at first]. Overall, just very happy and excited. [Balogun] strikes fear into a lot of defenders.’’

Striker Christian Pulisic said he was “mostly excited for [Balogun] getting the opportunity’’ to play “and just to see the smile on his face to be able to give us a boost tomorrow.

“If you look at the foul, there was zero intent at all. I felt like there were much worse [fouls] that went on in this tournament. I thought Balo handled it so well. You have to handle it in a good way, and good things happen to people like that. He was so positive. It just feels right.’’

It was, indeed, right.

Ultimately, with legal action looming, justice was served and the right decision was made.

Just in time.