Nottingham Forest could use strong links to make January move for Fluminense wonderkid

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Brazilians have become a staple of Nottingham Forest’s transfer strategy under Evangelos Marinakis in recent years, with their links in South America potentially set to be exploited once more.

This season has seen Murillo emerge as one of the Premier League’s elite centre-backs, with Alan Shearer praising Murillo for the Brazilian’s crucial impact under Nuno Espirito Santo.

Murillo took on the mantle left behind by fellow Brazilian defender Felipe, and his displays led to an international call-up, during which Felipe sent an emotional message to Murillo in support.

Another Brazilian making an impact at the City Ground is Morato, who has provided excellent cover for Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic at the back. Forest fans praised Morato after his performance against Everton which came about due to Murillo picking up an injury.

Clearly, the South American market has been incredibly fruitful in building a strong defensive unit in the Forest squad, but recent reports have suggested that Forest’s latest dip into the region may be for an exciting player further up the field.

Nottingham Forest have Kaua Elias on transfer radar

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Forest could look to Brazil to sign 18-year-old attacker Kaua Elias from Fluminese.

The report claimed that “Forest have increasingly strong links” in the Brazilian market that they have capitalised on continuously, with Elias the latest name suggested.

However, Forest won’t be the only side looking at the young starlet, with the report saying: “Fluminense forward Kaua Elias is a name on the radar of plenty of European clubs.”

If the Forest owner is looking for ways to convince Elias that a move to the City Ground would be a smart one, pointing at the success of Murillo especially, who hadn’t played in Europe before his switch to Forest.

Marinakis himself won’t need any convincing about Elias’ qualities, though, with the Fluminese man a star in the making in Brazil.

18-year-old Kaua Elias’ eye-catching statistics

Brazil have a tremendous ability to produce exciting attacking talents, with Elias looking set to be the next on the line to break into European football.

Elias featured a remarkable 43 times for Fluminese in 2024, scoring a respectable seven goals whilst he adjusted to senior football.

In Brazil’s Serie A, Elias averaged 1.72 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, as well as 1.29 shots on target per match.

His creativity is also impressive and seemingly perfect for the Forest squad, with Elias completing 80% of his long balls per 90 and 33% of his crosses which would benefit Chris Wood.

Elias has shown more of his goalscoring abilities in the Brazilian international set-up, scoring four in five at the under-17 World Cup in 2023 alongside five goals in seven games at the CONMEBOL tournament in the same year.