Who is Brighton's Carlos Baleba?

A couple of months ago I wrote a reaction to the transfer rumors of Billy Gilmour to Napoli and in it I picked out who I believed would step up and lead Brighton’s midfield forward and my pick was the 20-year-old Cameroonian Carlos Baleba. As we enter October, Gilmour of course completed his move to Napoli and Fabian Hurzeler’s men have enjoyed some decent early success in both the Premier League and the Carabao Cup and one of the standout performers has indeed been Baleba, who so far is proving me right.

Carlos Baleba stats

Baleba has played himself into a seemingly mainstay in Hurzeler’s starting lineup; after not featuring at all in the opening Premier League game against Everton and a substitute appearance in week two against Manchester United, Baleba has started all of Brighton’s last four league matches as well as both matches so far in the Carabao Cup, accumulating 680 minutes.

The manager’s faith in Baleba has quickly paid dividends, with the midfielder netting his first Albion goal in the Carabao Cup third round tie against Wolves scoring a stunning shot from long range after a defensive recovery.

A stunning first Brighton goal for Carlos Baleba! 🤩🕺 pic.twitter.com/xL2KWpLPVH

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) September 18, 2024

Just over a week later Baleba then scored his first Premier League goal in Brighton’s last game against Chelsea having also assisted Georginio Rutter for the game's first goal, spoiled only by a Cole Palmer four goal performance for the ages. In fact, Baleba’s performance against Chelsea is probably his best of the season so far. Against the Blues he played 90 minutes, picked up a goal and an assist to go with a 91% pass accuracy (51/56), two successful dribbles, eight out of 11 ground duels won, one blocked shot, one interception and four tackles and completely bossed the midfield which featured former Seagull Moises Caicedo on the opposite side.

Overall Baleba’s numbers in all competitions are very impressive so far. With 230 touches, 13 tackles, 12 interceptions, six blocks, an 88% pass completion, and eight out of 13 take-on attempts successful; Baleba is proving to be a dominant force in Brighton’s midfield, capable of breaking up attacks and leading the charge forward to feed a dangerous attack that features Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck and Joao Pedro.

To cap this off, Baleba has already picked up three Albion player of the match awards including two successively against Ipswich Town and Wolves.

🇨🇲🔥 | 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐚 (𝟐𝟎) in the last 2 matches:

🥇MOTM award vs @IpswichTown

🥇MOTM award vs @Wolves

⚽️ Goal vs @Wolves

Wonderful Player. pic.twitter.com/zyHa1W7sLF

— Rising Stars XI (@RisingStarXI) September 20, 2024

In a midfield that lost both its long-term anchor in Pascal Gross and the young talent of Billy Gilmour, Brighton needed someone to step up this season and take control and Carlos Baleba is certainly doing that. With Brighton often looking impressive this season under Hurzeler’s new regime, expect to see a lot more standout performances from the young midfielder, and get used to hearing the name, because Baleba is here to stay.