A successful career as a footballer hinges on so much more than ability. Tudor Baluta, Brighton’s once promising Romanian, who arrived at the club seven years ago today, suffered this shattering reality.
Having left the Seagulls in the summer of 2022 for Farul Constanta, Baluta returned to his homeland under the wing of Gheorghe Hagi, hopeful of returning to the Premier League one day. He is yet to reach that dream.
Hagi, Romania’s all-time top goalscorer and one of football’s greatest legends, is the majority owner and manager of Farul Constanta. It was a promising move for the midfielder, who had hopes of restoring his career after a damaging run of misfortune. The free transfer brought him full circle as well, having started his career at Farul’s academy, aged 15.
Upon Baluta’s return, Hagi vocalised his support for the new signing, saying: “Baluța had enormous bad luck and spent two years injured. He came to us just to get back on his feet, to play and have rhythm and intensity. We help him. With him, it’s not a question of whether he’s good or not. I think he’s the best in League 1.”
To be praised so highly by an icon of Hagi’s stature says a lot about the quality that Baluta possessed. He had talent in abundance, justifying Brighton’s reported £3million transfer fee in January of 2019 from Viitorul Constanta, the other half of the merger that would soon become today’s Farul Constanta, as of 2021.
In typical Albion fashion, the 19-year-old finished the 2018/19 season in Romania, after returning to Viitorul Constanta as part of the deal. The following campaign was then viewed as his chance to shine in England.
Under Graham Potter, Brighton’s new arrival in the dugout, Baluta found himself in the Premier League squad to face Burnley early in the season, before then making his singular appearance for the club in a 3-1 League Cup defeat to Aston Villa in September of 2019.
By January, the youngster hadn’t quite settled and found himself back out on loan, this time in the Netherlands with Den Haag in the Eredivisie. This was when Baluta’s misfortune first struck. His stint was shattered by the Covid pandemic as the world froze in time. He reflected on this unprecedented period with The Athletic in 2022.
Baluta recalled: “It was pretty crazy. I stayed only for two months and then had to go back home in March to Romania. Fortunately, I got to spend that time with my family. Otherwise, I’d have been alone in the Netherlands, not training, not doing anything.
“I stayed for months. I had to wait for the right moment to come back to Brighton and start training again in the team environment. It was quite a blow. Who would have thought before going to the Netherlands that a pandemic would stop everything? What can you do about that?”
Following the disaster of Covid, things started to look up for Baluta, as a fresh loan move to Champions League outfit Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine posed the opportunity for him to compete in Europe’s toughest competition.
Once more, the Romanian’s dreams weren’t to be. Only two days before his side were set to face European giants Barcelona, the curse of Covid returned, and Baluta fell ill. Upon his return to health, he was then handed another setback, this time even more damaging. Baluta had fractured his left foot in training, bringing a close to his time in Ukraine.
Despite having made 12 first-team appearances for Romania’s national team, he soon stepped back down to compete for the Under-23s on the international stage, competing in the 2022 Tokyo Olympics.
Once more, what was a clever and calculated decision for his career became another major roadblock as his previous foot fracture showed its remorseless face again, leaving Baluta to spend his final year with Brighton in recovery.
Despite his constant setbacks, the playmaker has remained patient, determined to get his career back on track. He previously explained: “Bad things happen all the time, it’s just how we react to those bad things.
“That’s the most important thing, and that defines us. I will always try to stay positive, no matter what the circumstances are.
”I’ve never before experienced anything like what has happened to me in the last couple of years. The fact that I kept working, focusing on my goals and what I want for me and my career, shows me even more that I’m strong enough to do this, mentally ready for any challenge that comes up.
“Now I just want to enjoy football even more than I did before. Being away from it for so long is like a kid being punished by his parents and not being allowed to go outside to play with his friends.”
Still in Romania, now aged 26, Baluta has made 29 appearances for CS U Craiova this season, scoring twice, as he continues to battle for his return to the Premier League.