He left with something rather more personal.
The Portuguese coach had already worked in several countries and had established himself as a head coach, but joining Sabri Lamouchi's staff at Nottingham Forest meant stepping into English football and one of its most historic clubs.
The experience left a lasting impression.
“When you work at Forest, you become a Red,” Baltazar told Football Presse.
“I became a little bit of a Red, like a fan. I still follow them and support them from afar.”
That attachment was forged during a remarkable 2019-20 Championship campaign.
Baltazar joined Forest after leaving Estoril and accepted a role on Lamouchi's coaching staff, giving him the opportunity to experience English football from inside one of the Championship's biggest clubs.
“It was always a dream to work in England,” he said.
“I had that opportunity at Nottingham Forest.”
Forest had appointed Lamouchi the previous summer, and Baltazar became part of a coaching staff that took the club to the brink of the play-offs.
It was a season that would ultimately end in extraordinary disappointment.
Forest went into the final day in the play-off places, only to lose 4-1 to Stoke City while Swansea City's late victory over Reading saw them fall out of the top six on goal difference.
Baltazar still remembers the potential he saw when he first arrived.
“When we arrived in Nottingham, the club was like a sleeping beast,” he said.
“But we immediately felt the potential of the club and its greatness because of its history and all the achievements they had in the past.”
Forest had won back-to-back European Cups under Brian Clough, but by the time Baltazar arrived they had spent more than two decades outside the Premier League.
The history was still everywhere.
So was the expectation.
“The fans are really demanding,” Baltazar said. “They want to win every single game.”
For a coach, that pressure was part of the attraction.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said.
“We played in one of the toughest leagues in the world — the Championship.”
He remembers the relentless nature of the division.
“Forty-six games in one season, nonstop, with lots of challenges, very tough opponents and a very tough league.”
Forest were not simply competing in a demanding division.
They were doing so under the weight of a supporter base desperate to see the club return to the Premier League.
“With a club like Nottingham Forest, the expectations of the fans are very high,” Baltazar said.
“And when you work with that pressure, it's a difficult environment.”
It was an environment that taught him a great deal about English football.
“England is different — the mentality, the atmosphere around the games, the intensity, the schedule.
“You really need to be ready and adapt to these very specific circumstances.”
His conclusion has never really changed.
“England is definitely one of the best places to work in football in the world.”
And Forest provided him with another important lesson: how to identify a player whose qualities could be transformed by changing his position.
That player was Matty Cash.
Cash had initially established himself as an attacking player at Forest, but Lamouchi and his staff saw the possibility of converting him into a right-back.
Baltazar played an important role in that process.
“He had quite a lot of problems defensively,” Baltazar later explained.
“I would describe him as a wild horse.”
“He was an incredible athlete — fast, strong and full of energy. But at the beginning there was more heart than reason in his game.”
Baltazar's job was to bring some of that reason into Cash's football.
“Working with him, I tried to add some of that reason and make him a full-back.”
The transformation was significant.
Cash became one of Forest's most important players, eventually earning a move to Aston Villa and establishing himself as a Premier League full-back and Poland international.
Cash himself later credited Lamouchi and his coaching staff, including Baltazar, for their role in the change.
“The gaffer has been good, all of them, David, Bruno, Jean-Paul,” Cash said.
“They've been on me every day giving me advice. They've been brilliant. I'm really grateful to them.”
Baltazar remembers exactly why Cash needed to change.
“The Championship is so fast, and he was perfect for that kind of game,” he said.
“But when we were winning 1-0, he would still want to go forward.”
That attacking instinct was an asset.
It could also become a problem.
Baltazar's task was to teach Cash when to attack and when to control the game from the defensive position.
The experiment worked.
Cash went from a promising attacking player to a modern full-back, and the foundations of his Premier League career were laid at the City Ground.
For Baltazar, however, Forest was about much more than one player.
It was also where he worked closely with Lamouchi and absorbed another coaching influence.
“I learned a lot from Sabri,” he said.
“Sabri had a lot of Arrigo Sacchi's mentality, and I learned a lot from him about tactical work and the Italian way of thinking.”
Lamouchi's playing career had taken him through France and Italy, and he had been exposed to some of the game's most influential coaches.
Baltazar absorbed those ideas before adapting them to his own methods.
“Later, I adapted that more analytical and tactical way of working to my own style.”
The tactical education was matched by the demands of the Championship.
In July 2020, Forest travelled to Derby County knowing that the final weeks of the season were becoming increasingly important.
They led through Joe Lolley until Chris Martin equalised deep into stoppage time.
Baltazar's reaction afterwards revealed the standards inside the Forest coaching staff.
“It was very frustrating,” he said.
“We had a plan and stuck to it until the 96th or 97th minute, but unfortunately we didn't manage to hold the score.”
“We had chances to score the second goal and, at this stage of the season, we can't miss so many chances. We were playing against 10 men, so it's unacceptable to lose those two points.”
The frustration was understandable.
Forest had been in the top six since Boxing Day and appeared destined for the play-offs.
Then came the final day.
The defeat by Stoke and Swansea's victory meant Forest finished seventh on goal difference.
It was one of the most painful endings in the club's recent history.
Lamouchi remained in charge for the beginning of the following season but was dismissed in October 2020.
Baltazar left Forest with him.
He was subsequently offered the chance to take charge of Saudi club Al-Ain, but contractual issues surrounding his departure from Forest prevented the move from going ahead.
That episode also demonstrated the value of the Forest experience.
Baltazar had gone to Nottingham as an assistant.
He left with another layer of coaching education and a stronger reputation internationally.
“I grew up a lot as a coach,” he said.
“I grew up a lot as a man, as an individual.”
That became a recurring theme throughout his career.
He has subsequently worked across Europe, the Middle East and the United States, but England retains a particular place in his story.
“It was always a dream to work in England,” he said.
“And to work at a big club like Nottingham Forest was an amazing experience.”
Forest itself has since changed beyond recognition.
The club eventually ended its 23-year exile from the Premier League in 2022 and established itself back in the top flight. European football followed, including the remarkable run to the Europa League semi-finals in 2025-26.
Yet Baltazar's memories belong to a different Forest.
The Championship Forest.
The Forest that still felt like a sleeping giant.
The Forest of Lamouchi, Cash, Brice Samba, Joe Worrall, Joe Lolley and the painful final-day collapse.
It was a club still trying to rediscover its place among England's elite.
Baltazar saw something underneath all of that.
“When we arrived in Nottingham, the club was like a sleeping beast.”
He felt the history.
He felt the pressure.
And, eventually, he felt something closer to belonging.
“When you work at Forest, you become a Red.”
He still does.
“I still follow them and support them from afar.”