Nottingham Forest target Igor Jesus replaced a Real Madrid star in a Brazil debut to remember

Add as preferred source on Google

Nottingham Forest are in advanced talks to sign Igor Jesus, who made quite an impact on his debut for the Brazil national team.

Jesus wasn’t keen on a move to Forest in January, but Evangelos Marinakis’ persistence looks to have paid off. Forest are now in advanced talks to sign Jesus after the Club World Cup.

After Liam Delap chose Chelsea over Forest, Reds fans will be delighted that they have managed to move quickly onto another striker target, and one that will cost the club less with a £20 million deal on the cards.

While it can be hard to gauge how a player signing from Brazil will do in the Premier League, Jesus has also starred for the national team, displacing one of Brazil’s top stars in the process.

Igor Jesus was preferred to Endrick by the former Brazil manager

Jesus’ form in the Brazilian Serie A earned him a call-up to the Brazilian national team in October 2024, but he wasn’t necessarily expected to start with the likes of Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior and Endrick of Real Madrid in the frontline.

However, as quoted by Sportstar, the 24-year-old managed to outshine Endrick in the eyes of then-coach Dorival Junior.

Dorival said: “What I see is that Igor’s moment is very interesting, Endrick is still getting to know his new club, he’s arriving at the biggest club in world football with a lot of competition.

“I think that Igor’s own experience and the moment he’s living is a little different. Maybe it’s important to have players with this profile for a game of this magnitude and at this time.”

The game in question was a World Cup qualifier against Chile, in which Jesus made his claim for a permanent spot in the national set-up with a remarkable debut that will excite City Ground fans.

Igor Jesus scored a crucial goal on his Brazil debut

Arsenal were interested in Jesus this summer, perhaps seeing his Brazil debut in October as the key metric that he could thrive in English football.

Brazil have been struggling in the World Cup qualifying stage and went a goal down against Chile, but Jesus levelled the score on the stroke of half time with a deft header into the far corner from a cross by Savinho of Manchester City.

Clearly one for the big occasions, then, Jesus repaid the faith of Dorival and made his claim to become a regular for the national team. Hopefully, he’ll be playing alongside Murillo for both club and country soon enough.