After wining and dining Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun on a whirlwind tour through the heart of American culture a few months ago — a dog-themed outdoor pub, spring training baseball and an Orlando Magic basketball game — the United States men's national team finally got its man.

On Tuesday, FIFA approved the one-time switch for the 21-year-old striker to represent the United States after playing for England at youth level. And we'll leave it to former William & Mary winger Jon Stewart to sum up the general feeling among the USMNT fanbase.

With 19 goals on loan at Reims in Ligue 1 this season, Balogun certainly feels like a massive get — especially for a national team that hasn't had consistent striker production since the days of, I don't know, Billy Gonsalves? At the same time, we've seen plenty of other dual-national commits fizzle out for the U.S.: Aron Johannsson, Timmy Chandler, Edgar Castillo, Jose Torres, Julian Green and so on.

Balogun is better than all of them — and he might even be better than Stewart realizes, too.

A brief history of striker issues

One of my theories about American soccer's struggles is that we're always five years behind. We bought into the English model — right around when the Three Lions were failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup and way before their recent resurgence. We started to emphasize the importance of possession play — right around the time when transitions and pressing were taking over. We hired the least-German German manager right when German soccer was conquering the world again. And then, ahead of the 2022 World Cup, we were bemoaning the lack of a proper No. 9 — right when the best teams in the world had all but discarded the idea of a traditional target man.