Baleba
Susan Abayomi
Manchester United have agreed a deal worth up to £70m to sign Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Carlos Baleba, marking a major step in Michael Carrick’s summer midfield rebuild at Old Trafford. According to reports on Friday, the agreement is structured as an initial £65m fee plus up to £5m in add-ons, with Brighton also securing a sell-on clause for any future transfer. Baleba is now set to undergo a medical before putting pen to paper on a five-year contract with the option of a further 12 months.
The 22-year-old Cameroon international has been on United’s radar for more than a year. Brighton signed him from Lille for £23m in 2023 as a replacement for Moisés Caicedo, and he has since made 112 appearances for the Seagulls. Last summer United were quoted around £115m and walked away, but Brighton’s valuation has dropped after a dip in form and a recent ankle ligament injury picked up in pre-season that is expected to keep him out for two to three weeks.
For United, Baleba fits the profile Carrick wants to add after the departure of Casemiro left a structural void in midfield. The club has already been active this window, bringing in Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa and Andrey Santos from Chelsea for a combined outlay of around £100m. Baleba would be the third central midfield signing and is viewed as the “destroyer-type” anchor to complement the technical profiles already added.
Brighton’s negotiating stance has been consistent. The club has built a reputation for extracting maximum value and initially dismissed suggestions of a £50m sale. Even with Baleba’s form fluctuations and injury, they held out for a fee in the £70m-£80m range. The eventual agreement includes that sell-on clause and reflects Brighton’s leverage, with three years still left on the player’s contract.
The transfer also tells a story about the market this summer. United missed out on other midfield targets like Elliot Anderson, who joined Manchester City, and Mateus Fernandes, who moved to Tottenham. With those options off the table and Manuel Ugarte also dealing with an injury from the World Cup, Baleba emerged again as United’s No.1 choice for the holding role. Sources close to the club say personal terms were never an issue, with the player keen on the move to Old Trafford.
United will hope Baleba can quickly adapt once fit, as they return to the Champions League and open their Premier League campaign this weekend. At £70m he won’t come cheap, but he arrives younger and with Premier League experience compared to the alternatives United explored. If the medical goes through as planned, he will join a midfield that has been almost completely overhauled under Carrick, with the club betting that Baleba’s mobility, positional awareness and potential to grow can help fill the gap left by Casemiro’s exit.
