Carlos Baleba has come a long way since the day he had to pull out of a Cameroon Cup last-16 match due to a school exam.

Now Baleba’s exams tend to be restricted to the football field – and a significant one is looming at Old Trafford this weekend.

It is unfair on the 22-year-old to be viewed as the potential saviour of Manchester United’s season.

However, at £70m, Baleba was by far the most expensive of United’s three major summer signings.

He is also the player earmarked for the holding midfield role Michael Carrick has had trouble filling effectively following Casemiro’s exit in May.

United knew Baleba had an ankle injury when they bought him from Brighton on 25 August and they may have to wait until after the international break for the Cameroon midfielder to make his debut.

They were not expecting that they would be 12th in the Premier League, with just one win and five points from their opening five games. In addition, Brighton came from 2-0 down at Old Trafford to deservedly knock them out of the EFL Cup.

So there is no disguising that the pressure is on for Baleba and his new club ahead of the visit of rock-bottom Tottenham before three away trips in a row. Champions League encounters at Atletico Madrid and Como fall either side of a journey across the Pennines to face Leeds.

“Very quick,” is the assessment from one United insider of their first impressions of Baleba. “He covers the ground really well.”

A handful of training sessions before Baleba was named on the bench for the 1-1 draw at Fulham on 20 September, and a closed doors game against Swiss League outfit Lausanne-Sports on 2 October, when United’s international contingent were absent, is a small sample size to form an opinion on.

However, Baleba’s speed is something that should bring positive benefits to United’s midfield.

Andrey Santos has it; less so Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans, who have been paired together by Carrick in the last four league games due to their superior technical abilities.

United have been too easy to play through and danger has not been spotted quickly enough.

Carrick’s side is one of only four in the top flight yet to keep a clean sheet. They have conceded twice in four out of their seven games in all competitions. Until an answer is found, an upturn in form is difficult to envisage.

Clearly, Baleba must do a bit more than run fast, and his input must be felt in the dressing room as well as on the pitch.

Sources say an understandable initial shyness and nervousness seems to be being overcome. Baleba is not the most confident English speaker, but he has improved significantly since he moved to Brighton from Lille for £23.2m in 2023.

He has struck up a friendship with Amad Diallo. It is coincidence two young players from Africa should be going through their recovery work at the same time, but also helpful that a shared background creates a natural bond that has been built on over the last few weeks.

Amad was even laughing on the video he uploaded onto social media of Baleba poking fun at him after Cameroon beat his Ivory Coast in a friendly on 3 October.

A former team-mate of new France international Leny Yoro at Lille and Bryan Mbeumo at international level, Baleba already has other unexpected relationships at United’s Carrington training ground judging by his joking with Patrick Dorgu after the final game of last season at the Amex Stadium.

The key for United is that Baleba produces the performances that lit up his 2024-25 campaign and earned suggestions of a potential move to Real Madrid, rather than those last term which were often below-par.

Suggestions Baleba had his head turned by late interest from United in the summer of 2025 have been dismissed by Brighton sources, although an alternative reason for the dip in form has not been offered.

As it turned out, the background work done by the data and recruitment teams at Carrington 12 months ago was not wasted. After missing out on Elliot Anderson and Mateus Fernandes, and with other options deemed unsuitable, United moved for Baleba just before the shock opening-day defeat at Hull, completing the deal just afterwards.

Given they were being quoted significantly more than £100m for the midfielder in August 2025, they regard £70m as good business.

However, Baleba is yet to step on the pitch and as Fernandes has shown in his disappointing early performances for Tottenham, any early assessment of what constitutes a good deal should at least wait for that.

It will be fascinating to see how Baleba and Fernandes match up to each other if they start at Old Trafford, when defeat for either side has the potential to turn early season disappointment into a near crisis.

Baleba’s natural jocular personality should help his preparation. He will hope to get the chance to show off his back flip goal celebration – even if an ability to find the net is not why United bought him.

More importantly though, he has a powerful determination to succeed, drilled into him by his dad. He pushed him through punishing training sessions when he was younger, which Baleba has said was integral to him becoming a professional.

In a sense, success has already been achieved given he has fulfilled a promise he made to his mum to build her a house in Douala. Tragically for Baleba, his mother died a few months before he left Lille and never saw it.

He is still pushing, still motivated to do well for her, as he recounted in an interview with the Guardian in April 2025.

Go back further, to a chat with French football magazine Onze Mondial in September 2023 and you get to the core of what makes Baleba tick.

In explaining his passions outside of football, Baleba talks about manga, described by the British Museum as ‘Japanese comic books or graphic novels’, which now has ‘fans across the globe’.

His favourite series is Fist of the North Star, the hero of which is Kenshiro.

“When he started out, everyone beat him up, he got covered in scars, then he became strong,” Baleba explained. “After that, he was the one beating everyone up. He never gave up. I like that attitude.”