Played for both: How has Plymouth star and former Sunderland prodigy Bali Mumba fared?

Sunderland welcome back former great last hope Bali Mumba this weekend, and he has certainly done well for himself since leaving Wearside.

This weekend former Sunderland player Bali Mumba will be returning to play at the Stadium of Light for the first time since he left the club back in July 2020.

Mumba was born in South Shields and joined Sunderland’s academy in 2010. He made his first senior appearance on the final day of the 2017-18 EFL Championship season, where Sunderland beat the Champions Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 at the Stadium of Light. 

During that game, Mumba came on in the 87th minute for captain John O’Shea, who handed him the captains armband as he left the field. This made him Sunderland’s youngest ever captain at the age of 16 years, 6 months and 29 days. 

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That day, Mumba and Sunderland looked set for a long relationship. It didn't pan out that way. 

Bali didn’t feature much for Sunderland over the next two seasons, only making a further nine appearances in all competitions. 

He then went out on loan to South Shields in March 2020 and scored on his debut against FC United of Manchester before his loan spell was cut short due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

In July the same year, Mumba made the switch to Championship side Norwich City, who had just been relegated from Premier League after their one season stay. 

Rumours were abound that the club's owners, Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven, sold Mumba to pay for season card refunds that fans were due to the covid pandemic. Those rumours were never confirmed, but it certainly seemed iffy. 

He made his league debut on the 31st of October 2020 in an away win over Bristol City, and his first league start came on match day 39 in a 1-1 draw against Preston North End. 

Norwich won promotion back to the Premier League that season, and he made his first Premier League appearance coming off the bench in a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City. It would turn out to be his final appearance for Norwich.

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On the 6th of January 2022, Mumba joined Championship side Peterborough United on loan. He scored a goal on his debut in the FA Cup third round tie against Bristol Rovers and it was generally a productive loan spell.

That summer, Mumba was on the move again and he joined League One side Plymouth Argyle on a season-long loan. Plymouth had a great start to the season and were top of the league by the end of September. 

Unsurprisingly, Mumba’s performances didn’t go unrecognised, and he won the EFL Young Player of the Month award for September 2022.

Mumba went on to play a total of 47 games and achieve 16 goals and assists in all competitions that season. He won the EFL League One title with Plymouth, playing alongside fellow loanee Jay Matete, and he was named the EFL League One Young Player of the Season at the EFL Awards.

He made the permanent switch to Plymouth in the summer for a joint club record fee of £1 million pounds and he has continued to impress so far this season, in which he has two goals and three assists in 29 Championship games.

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