Folarin Balogun credits a dressing down from Arsenal youth coaches for sparking his pro career.

The Gunners striker is currently starring on-loan in France with Reims.

Things could have been so different for the youngster who did not transition to playing a centre forward until the age of 16. Prior to that he was a slightly underwhelming winger in the Arsenal academy set up sleepwalking towards the end of his dream of making it as a professional footballer. It was at this point that a rude awakening from his coaches at Hale End changed that trajectory.

"Not a lot of players get told the reality of the situation when they're young," he told football.london reflecting on that time. “I definitely got told when I was 15-16, that I wasn't doing enough and that I needed to improve my attitude and parts of my game. That was the year we were getting told if we were getting scholarships so the reality hit me quickly. I'm not somebody who needs to be told two or three times.

“After that conversation I just got my head down and luckily I turned things around really quickly. The following season I was top goal scorer and got my first international call up so it definitely built character and it's the same traits that are with me today, for sure."