THE REAL DEAL
Battling with Messi has given Balogun the strength of mind to be a hit at Ibrox
HE facEd Lionel Messi at the 2018 World cup finals, unfazed by the responsibility that comes with carrying the hopes and dreams of 190 million fellow Nigerians.
Off the pitch, the Ghandiquoting defender has made a brave and strident commitment to standing up to the racists in football’s midst.
after Leon Balogun joined Rangers on a one-year deal yesterday, the evidence from his cV suggests the 32-year-old possesses a strength of character that should help him cope with the pressures in Glasgow of stopping celtic reaching ten in a row.
an experienced centre-half, German-born Balogun had spells with Hannover, Werder Bremen, fortuna dusseldorf, darmstadt and Mainz before moving to Brighton and Hove albion and, latterly, Wigan athletic.
But his proudest moment will always be facing argentina in St Petersburg in 2018. Even if Messi’s magical close control saw him witness in the flesh one of the World cup’s finest-ever goals before Nigeria equalised then went down 2-1 to a late Marcos Rojo effort.
‘The World cup was a great experience, to be there was historic and one I will tell my children, and hopefully my grandchildren,’ said Balogun previously. ‘I felt grateful to be part of it. Messi’s goal was special, the technique alone.
‘My highlight was when I spoke to Messi after the match, and swapped jerseys, because I admire him as a football player.
‘But I know what comes with playing at the World cup — the joy, the despair, all the emotion.
‘But if you expose yourself to the pressure, if you read all the comments, check your Twitter, then you’ll go crazy. You have to be strong mentally to deal with it.’
Balogun had used his tough mentality earlier that World cup year when he and a team-mate were racially abused while warming up for Mainz back at Hannover.
He backs the method advocated by Liverpool legend John Barnes of tackling such situations by not reacting on the pitch but calling publicly for more education.
‘Me and my team-mate anthony Ujah got insulted and they did monkey noises,’ he recalled in 2018. ‘It ended up with two fans, from the hardcore fan block, having a lifetime ban. They will never get into their stadium again. That’s what we can achieve.
‘It is nonsense and I’m sick of it and that is why now I have a voice I try to raise it. I try to tell young people, kids with the same background: “You have a voice, use it, you should never be too shy or scared. Grab help and then fight for it”.
‘If you get insulted by some stupid person trying to make you feel inferior, to give you the feeling you’re worthless, it’s always hard to keep your composure but the John Barnes approach is definitely the best.
‘Gandhi says you have to be peaceful. Education is key. No one is born a racist. If we are young kids, we just want to play, we don’t care about colour, gender, nothing.
‘It is something that is taught. Some parents aren’t even racist but they have some values from their generation and they live by it and don’t even know it is racist but pass it on to their children.’
after falling out of favour at Brighton, Balogun made a big impact at Wigan, even agreeing a short-term extension to his contract to cover the last six matches of the season.
He was unable to stop Paul cook’s side going down, but had it not been for a 12-point penalty imposed for going into administration, subject to an appeal, the Latics would have finished mid-table.
former Wigan recruitment analyst dougie Wright is convinced Balogun is the final piece in the defensive jigsaw needed by Steven Gerrard at Ibrox, who has been looking for cover since Niko Katic suffered a knee injury.
‘Is Leon the missing ingredient that he’s been looking for? Potentially, yes,’ said Wright, who was made redundant by Wigan’s administrators earlier this month. ‘He is confident in possession and I can see why that will be a big attraction for Steven Gerrard.
‘I don’t think there was a better centre-back in the championship than Leon last season. He was so comfortable and he strolled it. He made those around him better by how good he was.
‘He was very composed in possession, could play left or right side at centre-half and brings the ball out really well.
‘defensively, he’s not the most aggressive but he’s intelligent in terms of his positioning.
‘He will win most aerial duels just because he knows exactly where the ball will go.
‘He has good recovery pace, so you can’t really play it in behind him and in terms of his discipline, the last time I checked at the start of July he hadn’t committed a single foul by that point.
‘We were losing so many goals from set-pieces but once he came in that stopped as he was just so intelligent at winning the ball back.
‘He’s a brilliant guy too, very intelligent, very articulate and popular in the dressing room. (Wigan boss) Paul cook couldn’t speak highly enough of him.
‘We had looked at bringing him in permanently before things turned out like they did at Wigan.’