Folarin Balogun could be forced to consider a move to a Turkey or Saudi Pro League club this week after AS Monaco said they are still looking to offload the contract of the United States men’s national team forward following the collapse of his $45 million transfer to Everton.
Balogun, 25, pulled the plug on a move to the Premier League team in the early hours of Wednesday after Everton and Monaco had been granted additional time following the 2300 BST transfer deadline to restructure the terms of his transfer after issues were raised during the player’s medical examination at the English club’s Finch Farm training ground.
Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro told a news conference on Wednesday that Balogun abandoned the move due to concerns over his treatment by Everton following the medical.
Sources have told ESPN that Everton were alerted to “significant issues” by the medical.
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But with Ligue 1 side Monaco needing to raise funds by offloading the contracts of players on their squad, Scuro said that they are now assessing options in other markets to dispense with Balogun’s contract, with the transfer windows in Turkey and Saudi Arabia still open for business until Sept. 4 and Oct. 12 respectively.
“We are still waiting for Balo to come back and to sit and discuss and to realise between us what is next,” Scuro said. “We still have other markets open, which we are having discussions in different players including Balo.
“Let’s see what can still happen until Thursday, because we still have markets that have the financial capacity to do something and this is what happened and this is where we are today.”
Sources have told ESPN that Everton and Monaco renegotiated the terms of the $45 million deal following the unsuccessful medical and that both clubs, and Balogun, signed a Deal Sheet before the 11 p.m. deadline in order to seek a two-hour extension from the Premier League to conclude the deal.
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The terms of submitting a Deal Sheet are that all parties must sign it for the Premier League to grant the extension.
But despite both clubs and Balogun signing the Deal Sheet, Scuro said that the player ultimately chose to call the move off.
“The allegation of Balogun is that, ‘I’m not feeling well by the way the club treated me, the way the medical team brought doubts about my future or my health. I’m not comfortable to sign a long contract here the way we finished the transfer window here.’
“During the day, we had a clear agreement for Balogun to go to Everton, Balogun flew to Everton to undergo a medical.
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“Balo was in Liverpool going through his medical, around 7 p.m. we had a call from Everton raising questions on the medicals of Balo, which for our medical staff, the personnel staff of the player, made totally no sense.
“The explanations were not enough to justify or bring concerns for the future of the player, this discussion started for medical departments, it took Everton two to three hours to check through the assessment, this is a normal situation.
“The Premier League has a mechanism where you have one extra hour to finish the paperwork, this was done five minutes before the close of the transfer window for us to finish paperwork between Balogun and Everton.
“I signed the contract, Everton signed the contract, at the last moment the player decided not to sign.”
Sources have told ESPN that Everton were frustrated by Balogun’s late arrival on a private flight from France and, additionally, Monaco’s failure to provide the required medical documents in time for all parties to resolve the deal earlier in the day.
With Balogun’s deal seemingly off following the medical, Monaco then opened discussions with Chelsea to offload midfielder Lamine Camara, only for the French club to abort that deal in the final moments of the window due to their belief that the Balogon transfer would be completed.
“It was already in the media that Balogun is failing the medical and of course, Chelsea saw the opportunity,” Scuro said. “‘Monaco needs money, Balo is strugglng there, let’s go, let’s try.’ This is the game.
“On this moment, we had to open the door for the discussion, we started conversations for Lamine [Camara], I informed the player directly, I informed his agent, we had discussions for the conditions for Lamine to go to Chelsea.
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“Meanwhile, the medical discussion was ongoing with Balo. Around 10 p.m., Everton realised there is no problem.
“As soon as we got the information, we came back to Chelsea that we have our deal there and there’s no deal for Lamine.
“It’s fair to do this, it’s part of the game.”
