Manchester United Close In on Carlos Baleba as Third Midfield Signing of the Summer

Manchester United are closing in on a deal for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, with Sky Sports reporting the two clubs are close to a full agreement. United already have a five-year contract ready for the 22-year-old to sign once the club-to-club business is formally concluded, and medical plans will be scheduled swiftly once that happens.

The move has been building for months. Sky Sports News has been reporting on United’s interest in Baleba as far back as last autumn and broke the news that the club enquired about signing him during the January transfer window. He has remained one of their top targets throughout the summer and is set to become United’s third midfield addition of the window, following the arrivals of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans.

Completing a Three-Man Midfield Rebuild

United have already committed heavily to reshaping their midfield this summer, signing Andrey Santos from Chelsea for £50m and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa for £35m, a combined outlay of £85m before Baleba’s fee is even added. Roma’s Manu Kone had also been strongly considered as United searched for a third addition, but Baleba has emerged as the club’s preferred option.

The appeal is what he offers that Santos and Tielemans do not. United’s business so far has been built around technical quality, and Baleba brings specialist defensive power coupled with the athleticism to drive the team up the pitch, exactly the profile the club identified as missing from their midfield rebuild. He is currently working back from an ankle ligament injury, though it is not expected to keep him out for an extended period once the move is completed.

From Lille to the Premier League’s Top Prospects

Baleba’s rise began in Ligue 1, where he made his first start for Lille in January of the 2022/23 season, a goalless draw against Stade Brestois, and went on to make 19 league appearances that campaign. Brighton moved quickly, signing him for £23.2m that summer as part of Roberto De Zerbi’s rebuild of the Brighton midfield following Moises Caicedo’s departure.

De Zerbi made no secret of how highly he rated the teenager at the time. “Carlos is a very good player,” De Zerbi said. “He’s very young but a specific player for our style. He will be the future of the club.”

The context behind that signing shows how much faith Brighton placed in Baleba from the start. He arrived just weeks after Brighton sold Moises Caicedo to Chelsea for a British-record fee of £115m, with an initial £100m plus £15m in performance-related add-ons. Rather than chase a like-for-like replacement at a similar price, De Zerbi turned to a 19-year-old with only 19 Ligue 1 appearances to his name, betting that Baleba could eventually fill the void Caicedo left behind. Three years on, with United now closing in on a deal, that bet looks to have paid off in full.

That prediction largely held up. Baleba went on to make 112 appearances for Brighton across three seasons, including 35 last season alone, establishing himself as one of the division’s most sought-after young midfielders. His first Premier League goal came away at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, a moment that underlined the physical, ball-winning profile that has now made him a target for one of the league’s biggest clubs.

A Cameroon International on the Rise

Baleba has also become a regular for Cameroon, who qualified for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco without losing a game. Before the tournament, Baleba said his ambition was to be the best midfielder at AFCON, giving everything for himself, his people and his country, and he backed Cameroon to perform well given the nation’s history in the competition. His campaign was interrupted when he was substituted off with an injury in Cameroon’s group game against South Africa, and he missed a spell of Brighton’s season as a result.

That combination of defensive coverage and progressive running has made him as important a figure for Cameroon as he has become for Brighton, and it is the same profile Manchester United are banking on to reshape their own midfield.

Working Through the Noise

The interest from Manchester United has followed Baleba through an uneven period at Brighton. He put pressure on himself to repeat the form that made him one of the league’s most talked-about young midfielders, and admitted the early part of a recent season was disappointing as a result. “I feel more relaxed now,” Baleba told Sky Sports. “The noise about me outside, I didn’t understand. I didn’t look on the websites. I’m more focused on me, myself and for my team-mates.”

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler, who succeeded De Zerbi in the Amex Stadium dugout, has taken a direct approach with Baleba rather than shielding him from criticism. “Carlos won’t get better if he only gets compliments and claps from outside,” Hurzeler said. “I think he will get better if he has a safe environment, but also honest feedback where he knows what he needs to improve.”

A Window Built Around Reinforcement

Baleba’s expected arrival fits a broader pattern to United’s summer business. The club closed their pre-season schedule with a 4-2 defeat to AC Milan, a result that underlined why reinforcements were prioritized even as the underlying performances under Carrick have trended upward across his spell in interim charge. Forward areas have also been addressed indirectly, with Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo both looking sharp in pre-season and Joshua Zirkzee showing signs of the form United hoped for when they signed him, including a standout display against Leeds in Dublin.

What It Means for United

United head coach Michael Carrick has been direct about wanting more additions before the transfer window closes on September 1. “We want more, we need more,” Carrick said, pointing to “one or two areas where we’d like to improve” as the club tries to build on a first half-season in charge that saw results improve significantly from where United finished the previous year.

Adding Baleba on top of Santos and Tielemans would give Carrick three distinct profiles in central midfield inside a single window: a technical progressor in Santos, an experienced game manager in Tielemans, and now a ball-winner with the legs to cover ground in both directions.

With the deal described as close to a full agreement rather than finished, the final details are still being worked out between the two clubs. But the framework is already in place: a five-year contract ready, a medical to be scheduled once the club-to-club business is signed off, and a player Manchester United have tracked for the better part of a year now within reach.

For Baleba, it would mean leaving the club that gave him his Premier League chance for one that has spent the summer trying to close the gap on England’s leading sides. For United, it would mean going into the closing stretch of the transfer window with all three of their targeted midfield profiles in place, a rare position for a club that has spent recent windows reacting to injuries and departures rather than executing a plan set out from the start.