That included five-and-a-half years spent on the books at Wolves, which began with a scholarship in the Academy, and progressed to the first team set-up, and a treasured Premier League debut away at Tottenham – Harry Kane, Gareth Bale, Son Heung-Min and all.
As a result of several loan spells during his career, particularly while at Wolves, he has already represented eight clubs at senior level. Despite still being in his early twenties. But hopefully, and most importantly, with plenty more appearances to come.
He is currently, perhaps ironically given his extensive travelling across both the UK and Europe on his footballing odyssey, back on home soil, very close to where it all started, playing for Toronto FC in Major League Soccer.
But those memories of Wolves, whom he left permanently for Granada in La Liga in January of last year, are still easily recalled.
“Ah that accent,” he says at the start of the conversation, in advance of Toronto taking on Dean Smith’s Charlotte FC last weekend.
“It’s been a while since I heard one of those.”
And there is still plenty of talk of all things Molineux within the camp at Toronto, accents or otherwise, as one of Wolves’ cult heroes Neil Emblen is on the Canadian club’s coaching staff.
“Neil was the first coach I spoke to when I came back to Toronto,” says Corbeanu.
“He’s a great guy and we’ve got a great relationship and speak all the time.
“There are constant references about Wolves and our memories of our time there and he lived in Tettenhall which wasn’t too far away from where I was.
“So, we have a lot of those sorts of conversations!”
If the likes of Emblen and other senior figures within football have helped Corbeanu during his career to date, there is one influence who has been particularly important.
Family. And, especially, his older brother Radu.
Both Corbeanu’s parents were born in Romania, coming to Canada in 1999 with Radu, with Theo then born three years later.
Growing up in Hamilton, at a time when other sports such as hockey, basketball and baseball were greater in the national consciousness, Corbeanu was always properly into football, helped in no small part by his brother.
And then later, when as a young man still in his teenage years, Corbeanu was understandably struggling to settle into life in England and at Wolves Academy, family came to the fore.
Whilst his Dad stayed at home to work in Canada, his Mum and brother came over to spend several weeks in Wolverhampton, helping the young player acclimatise to make the most of his opportunity.
At the visit’s conclusion, at something of a ‘summit meeting’ held on one of the benches in the Mander Centre, it was agreed that Radu would stay on, pretty much indefinitely, to support Theo’s career. A real-life band of brothers.
“It was about four months in, and I was really struggling to adapt to a new culture,” Corbeanu.
“It had been my dream to come over to England, and I was living with a lovely host family, but I just wasn’t enjoying the football, and had lost my confidence.
“I was talking to my family and was ready to go home if I’m honest, and that is when they came over and spent some time with me.
“I will never forget the end of that, and my Mum asking my brother if he could see himself living over here, because I could think of nothing better.
“I missed my family so much and I missed him – we have always been so close as brothers and I was so happy he decided to stay.
“As soon as that happened, and I had a family member with me, everything changed, and I came back to form.
“I started playing well, scoring goals, and I finally felt that Wolverhampton could become my home.”
Initially of course, it was Canada that was Corbeanu’s home, not just geographically, but in football as well.
At times as a youngster he played as a goalkeeper, more out of fun than anything, but his ability as a forward-thinking midfielder, comfortable with both feet, soon marked him out as an attacking prospect with plenty of potential.
Initially part of Toronto FC’s pre-academy, from Under-10 to Under-12 level, ultimately the hefty twice-weekly commute for training and games became too much, so he returned to playing local football.
Within that however, a well-connected coach offered the opportunity to go on trial with several clubs in Europe, including PSV Eindhoven, Fulham and some showcase tournaments in Spain.
But then, around 2016, he returned to Toronto, coming through another recruitment process and adapting his schooling so some of his sessions were delivered online, thus making that commute – also helped by having two other team-mates travelling from Hamilton – more manageable.
The footballing dream was still very much intact.
Corbeanu was continuing to impress, and continuing to travel, enjoying testing himself against European opposition on tours with Toronto and also at events such as the Generation Adidas Cup.
Playing up an age, he was making his mark and scoring goals against powerhouses such as Real Madrid, River Plate and Eintracht Frankfurt, and agents based both at home and further afield spotted his potential.
He spent a month on trial with Leicester, making an impression for their Under-18s during pre-season including on a tour to Poland, and, while mulling over a potential move from Toronto, it was decided to also explore other potential options in England, even if just to make a comparison.
One of those was Wolves.
He was flown back over from Canada to play in the first game of the season for the Under-18s against Everton, and he scored. Very quickly, the decision was made.
“I wanted to become a footballer, that was always my driving force,” Corbeanu admits.
“I was also not necessarily wanting to leave Toronto, but my family and my agents had a huge impact on me in explaining that nothing comes easy in life and maybe I needed to go somewhere where I was less comfortable to try and develop.
“I also enjoyed it at Leicester, who had been the first team to show interest in me, so I wouldn’t say I was coming to Wolves with the definite aim of joining the club.
“But I was open-minded, and once I was there, it was a really pleasant experience.
“I started playing well, I was training with the Under-23s and even the first team, and I could see there was a potential pathway.
“At the time, it wasn’t long since Leicester had won the Premier League, they were a higher profile team than Wolves then and were still playing in Europe.
“Wolves were newly promoted, so perhaps with more opportunity to break through, and had a Category One Academy which I knew would be phenomenal for my development.
“They were also very quick to make a formal offer of a scholarship, and that was it – there was no looking back and I was ready to move my entire life over from Canada.”
And so Corbeanu upped sticks and headed to WV1. Wolverhampton, however, is very different to Toronto.
As a 16-year-old, even with plenty of support from the club and academy, there was always going to be plenty to get used to in terms of adapting to a new culture away from friends and family.
As mentioned, Corbeanu found it challenging. Especially, as a very social personality, trying to fill his spare time. But once his brother had moved across, he started to fly.
Time spent back home during Covid working with a personal trainer also saw him improve his physique and develop positive habits which served him well on his return.
Having seen others such as Hugo Bueno, Ched Campbell and Luke Cundle move ahead of him in the pecking order as regards being in and around the first team set-up, now it was Corbeanu’s turn.
He had signed a professional contract on his 17th birthday, and soon progressed to regular football with the Under-23s, not to mention numerous opportunities to train with the first team.
“I got the feeling Nuno liked how I played and liked to promote me, perhaps seeing things in me that others didn’t at the time,” Corbeanu suggests.
And then, in the second half of the 2020/21 season, things really started to happen.
In the March, still just 18, he was called into the senior Canada national team for World Cup qualifiers with Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
Having previously represented Romania at youth level, it was soon Canada all the way, not least as he came off the bench on his debut, and promptly scored within four minutes.
Then, just a couple of months later, came the debut at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, replacing Fabio Silva in the 82nd minute before, just 24 hours later, returning to the Under-23s to score a spectacular brace in the play-offs with Crystal Palace.
“That was an incredible time for me,” Corbeanu recalls.
“When I first got selected for Canada, in the back of my mind I was thinking I might not even play, but then I managed to come on and score, which took my game and my confidence to another level.
“Wolves had started picking up some injuries, so I was named on the bench for a lot of matches in succession, although I still wasn’t expecting to get on the pitch.
“As we got towards the end of the season, and that game at Tottenham, I finally got my opportunity.
“I wasn’t too sure how to handle it and sometimes it helps being thrown in at the deep end, but I was extremely nervous, knowing the sort of quality which the Premier League has.
“I could barely breathe, and needed one of our coaches Joao Lapa to tape my socks, whilst asking for all the energy gels!
“Also, I normally played in metal studs, but because I had been on the bench so many times without getting on, I didn’t even take my normal boots!
“One thing that did help and took the pressure off a little bit was the lack of fans, still due to Covid, and when my moment came, to finally make my first team debut, it was certainly an amazing feeling.”
Corbeanu was named in the matchday squad on no fewer than 11 occasions across that spell, but with so many top wide players ahead of him – Pedro Neto, Adama Traore and Daniel Podence as three examples – heading out on loan for more regular football was always going to be key to his development.
Being young, ambitious and, by his own admission, ‘slightly big-headed’ at the time, a drop of two divisions down to League One might not have been high on the Corbeanu wish list.
But as soon as he arrived at Sheffield Wednesday, saw the size of the club and the quality of players to learn from such as Barry Bannan, Lee Gregory, Liam Palmer and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru – now with Lazio – his attitude changed.
His game time was mixed between starts and appearances from the bench, and at times he was deployed as a wing back, but there were plenty of positive moments, including a couple of goals, before it was decided that Corbeanu should spend the second half of the season with MK Dons.
Part of a much younger side, managed by now Norwich boss Liam Manning, Corbeanu loved his time at Stadium MK, the only disappointment the team missing out on automatic promotion and then losing in the play-offs.
Next up was a step up to the Championship and Blackpool, where Corbeanu scored three goals under Michael Appleton, before another short stay in Bundesliga 2 with Arminia – during which he wasn’t given a single start – and six months in the Swiss Super League with Grasshoppers, where he was doing well until a change of ownership saw Wolves’ links with the club diminish.
By this stage, January of last year, the constant nomadic existence was starting to affect Corbeanu who, understandably, was finding it difficult to make an impression, being given such a short time to make an impact.
“The loan in Germany was a really difficult experience, I probably struggled there as much as I did when I first came to Wolves, but then I was really enjoying Grasshoppers only for it to end through no fault of my own,” he reflects.
“At this point I was starting to find it a real challenge to keep moving clubs and indeed moving countries, and knew the time had come to try and settle somewhere and make an impact, even if it was back with Wolves Under-23s.
“I had also started talking to Toronto, about the possibility of going to the MLS, and then, two days before the window closed, Granada from La Liga came in, and not with a loan but the offer of a permanent deal.
“There was also interest from elsewhere, including Hellas Verona in Serie A, but eventually it was Granada who I joined, excited by the prospect of playing in Spain in La Liga.”
Corbeanu scored against Villarreal in one of nine appearances in the Spanish top-flight and then, midway through this season, with relegated Granada now operating in the second division, a new opportunity emerged.
After all the travelling, all the different clubs, all the different challenges, it was time to come home.
Corbeanu headed back to where it all started in the pre-academy, back to Toronto, on a season-long loan albeit with an option to make it permanent.
It’s been a tough season for ‘The Reds’ so far – there is much work to be done – but Corbeanu has been getting plenty of game time, and is fiercely focused on helping the team climb the table.
Also, he would love to add to his seven international caps, particularly, having missed out on the World Cup squad for Qatar in 2022, and, with Canada as one of the hosts for the tournament next year, time is of the essence.
“After all the different moves and the need to adapt to so many different places, it has been great for me to get back home, close to family and friends, to get my groove back and play more minutes,” insists the man who was named Canada Youth Soccer Player of the Year in 2021.
“These past couple of months I feel I am starting to play freely again.
“Personally, it’s been so far, so good, but I can definitely be a lot better, and as a team we can improve our performances and get better results.
“Doing well at Toronto would also help me try and get back into the national team, and obviously the World Cup in Canada is a massive goal.
“Ideally I’d love to be involved in the Gold Cup this summer, but we do have some very good wingers, so it’s up to me to put in the performances which can help get me back in the mix.”
At just 23, it feels like there is still so much more to come from Corbeanu. The fact he has built up so much experience already, with so many different clubs, has certainly laid some solid foundations.
And included within that, a spell at Wolves, which offered so many opportunities to learn.
“There were experiences at Wolves which helped shape my entire life,” he reflects.
“Even if some of them were very difficult, and I went through a lot, it contributed to me developing a strong mentality and becoming unbreakable.
“I feel I am better placed to deal with so much more now, and that is the most important thing.
“And I still have so much more to achieve.”
