Man Utd signed two Brighton players born on the same date with £62m valuation gap and one is now gone

A big coincidence is shared between two Manchester United signings made five years apart.

Brighton and Hove Albion are now established as a Premier League regular, partly thanks to their impressive recruitment strategy.

Manchester United have signed two players from Brighton – with one remarkable coincidence.

Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Toby Collyer and Carlos Baleba both born on the same date

Toby Collyer and Carlos Baleba were both born on January 3, 2004.

The two players both made the move from Brighton to Manchester United – years apart.

But their two transfers to Manchester United came so far apart that they were not even teammates at the Seagulls.

Manchester United signed Toby Collyer from Brighton in 2022, adding him into into the club’s under-21 squad.

Five years later Manchester United signed Carlos Baleba, with Toby Collyer joining West Brom for £3 million.

Now in 2026, there is a £62 million valuation gap between Toby Collyer and Carlos Baleba.

Collyer has only made 30 first team appearances across his career to date, including his two loan spells – which were interrupted by injury.

These include only six appearances in the Premier League.

By contrast, Carlos Baleba has made 135 appearances at club level, 105 more than Collyer.

These include 92 games in the Premier League. Baleba also has 16 international caps for Cameroon.

Manchester United are paying for the experience he has already gained at Brighton, the good and the bad.

Baleba also picked up experience in France with Lille before his move to the Seagulls in early 2023.

He has accomplished a dream by finally landing his move to Manchester United, and the hard work is set to start.