Has three children: daughter Tasha Balaban (born 2003), son Ivano Balaban (born 2007) and daughter Tessa Balaban (born 2011) with ex-wife Iva Radic.
Balaban is regularly cited as one of the worst Premier League signings of all time.
During Balaban's time at Dinamo Zagreb, he had an incident with fascist salute, which he made to fans after scoring a goal against Inter Zapresic. He had to pay a fine of 100KN (around EUR14).