Midfielder on overcoming Premier League nerves, adapting while grieving for his mum and what shaped his work ethic
Not much fazes Carlos Baleba. The Brighton midfielder likes to spend his spare time watching horror films – “they don’t scare me; nothing has ever scared me” – or even dancing on his own to Mbolé music from his native Cameroon. “Sometimes I need to move my body,” Baleba says with a smirk.
Thanks to a strict training regime that he began at the age of 10 under the watchful eye of his father, Eugene, Baleba has developed into one of the Premier League’s most imposing figures. The 21-year-old is tipped to become the latest big-money transfer to leave Brighton after Moisés Caicedo was sold to Chelsea for a British record £115m in the summer of 2023.
