Watching the three Nottingham Forest-bound Brazilians play at the Club World Cup

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There’s a certain period of time for football fans, one that takes place between their club signing a player and them actually appearing for the team, in which anything is possible.

Hopes become projections, snatched clips expand to big conclusions, isolated moments turn into cast-iron certainties and are representative of their all-round game. Essentially, it doesn’t take much for the player in your mind to become some sort of God-like genius and to imagine a beautiful future for them.

Logically, you know that this is almost certainly not true, but for any Nottingham Forest fans who watched Botafogo’s Club World Cup win over Seattle Sounders on Sunday, it would be an easy trap to fall into.

Because two of Forest’s prospective new arrivals from Brazil, forward Igor Jesus and defender Jair Cunha, produced moments good enough to make even the most cynical Forest fans dream, but also enough to be cautious and not get too carried away.

Both players scored, but we’ll deal with the goals shortly. Perhaps the moment that will most make those fans stare wistfully into the future came from a long punt downfield after about 23 minutes.

Sounders midfielder Albert Rusnak collected the ball just inside his own half, looked up and tried an ambitious long pass looking for winger Ryan Kent, who had found some space behind the Botafogo right-back, Vitinho. It was a nicely weighted pass and was going over Jair’s right shoulder as he chased back towards his own goal, so the centre-back quickly snapped his head to his left to check whether he could let it run.

Jair could not, with Kent closing in, but by this point, he was in a tricky position: he could stoop and head the ball, but given he was moving backwards and goalkeeper John Victor was coming out, it could have spelled slapstick own-goal disaster. He could have tried to clear with his left foot as the ball dropped over his right shoulder, but the same risk applied if he sliced it. He could have left it for Vitinho to deal with, but Kent was too close to gamble with that one.

What the youngster actually attempted was probably the most high-tariff option: Jair adjusted his stride pattern and smoothly extended his right boot, catching the ball beautifully on his instep and plucking it out of the air, controlling it dead.

If Dimitar Berbatov had been a defender, you could imagine him doing this sort of thing all the time. Kent threw his head back in despair; a great chance snatched away from him and so stylishly, too. John Victor genuinely applauded.

Jair wasn’t done there, though. His touch took the ball to his right and slightly back up the pitch, but charging in to try to halt this gossamer piece of defending was Danny Musovski, who slid towards the Brazilian and attempted to either take the player or the ball. Ultimately, he did neither, as Jair flicked his hips to the left and took it past the Sounders midfielder, watching him slide past helplessly. It was reminiscent of the bit in David Beckham’s Netflix documentary when he recalled being embarrassed by Ronaldo in his first Real Madrid training session: these are the levels you need here, son.

Jair is just 20. He only moved to Botafogo in the winter, joining them from Santos, where he mostly played in the Brazilian second tier. He has a handful of senior appearances under his belt, so we have no idea how consistent he is able to be in the longer term. But this is the sort of moment that, if representative of his ability more broadly, could make him a special talent.

He got his goal a few minutes later. Jair is 6ft 6in (198cm) tall, so he has a natural advantage in the air, which he used when a terrific delivery from a free kick on the right came over. He made an aggressive run into the box and benefited from some slack marking to head home the opening goal of the game with 28 minutes on the clock. That was his first senior goal for anyone, never mind just Botafogo, so probably shouldn’t be treated as something Forest can expect regularly, but it was a promising header nonetheless.

28’ |⚽| GOOOOAL, Jair Cunha heads it in for Botafogo’s first goal of the FIFA Club World Cup 🔥

WATCH @Botafogo – @SoundersFC in the @FIFACWC now | June 14 – July 13 | Every Game | Free | https://t.co/i0K4eUtwwb | #FIFACWC #TakeItToTheWorld pic.twitter.com/NigUINEZvH

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) June 16, 2025

Just before half-time, one of Botafogo’s other Forest-bound players found the net. Igor Jesus is the headline piece in this three-player deal, with left-back Cuiabano (who was on the bench for this game and came on in the second half) completing the trio. Igor Jesus has four caps for Brazil and his transfer fee comprises about half of the £40million ($54.4m) total cost.

Again, it was a header, again following a cross from the right: Igor Jesus is not the tallest of strikers, but he rose brilliantly above his marker to nod into the corner. In truth, it wasn’t exactly a bullet header and benefited from some questionable footwork by Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei, but it was well placed and rewarded a strong all-round performance.

All angles of Igor Jesus’s goal ⚽

WATCH @Botafogo – @SoundersFC in the @FIFACWC now | June 14 – July 13 | Every Game | Free | https://t.co/i0K4eUtwwb | #FIFACWC #TakeItToTheWorld #BOTSEA pic.twitter.com/jlxBlDn948

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) June 16, 2025

Igor Jesus started as the forward in a system that was nominally a 4-2-3-1, but often looked more like a 4-4-2, with Jefferson Savarino pushing up to support him. In truth, he looked more comfortable as one of a front two, which might present some interesting options for Nuno Espirito Santo. The only two true strikers at Forest currently are Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi, who don’t particularly complement each other, thus have rarely played together: they spent just 95 minutes on the pitch at the same time in the whole of last season, including one start in which Awoniyi was substituted at half-time.

This meant that playing a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2 formation was difficult, with Anthony Elanga usually filling in as a makeshift forward when Nuno did want to set up that way. One of Nuno’s strengths is his team’s ability to easily switch between systems, which is trickier when you don’t really have the players for some of them. Igor Jesus probably won’t immediately threaten Wood’s starting place, but he will provide that option, certainly more naturally than Awoniyi.

He’s stocky, strong, doesn’t seem explosively quick over short distances, but was smart in his movement against the Sounders. In terms of his stature, he doesn’t look dissimilar to David Johnson, Forest hero of yore and father to Brennan. At one point, Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas ran into him and simply bounced off, like a man staring at his phone while walking down the street who clangs straight into a lamppost.

He dropped deep a lot, happy to go looking for the ball rather than waiting for it. There is a theory among some Brazilian observers that he excelled last season because he had better players around him, that his form has dropped off this season following the departures of Thiago Almada to Lyon and Luis Henrique to Zenit, but that didn’t seem to be much of a factor here.

A few times, his passing was off and he wasn’t especially clinical with the other chances he had. Based on this evidence, he might not be a lock for big goalscoring numbers in the Premier League — more a useful forward option, which Forest were seriously lacking last season.

Similarly, Jair. Given his age and experience, you wouldn’t expect him to go into the first team, but his potential is such that we still could see him in Nuno’s team next season. He has a slightly languid style that might annoy some observers and he was beaten with worrying ease in a couple of one-on-ones.

But he is strong on the ball and is predominately right-footed, which is important because on the occasions that Nuno went to a back three last season, it required a slightly awkward shuffling of personnel: ideally, Murillo would play on the left and Nikola Milenkovic in the middle, but the man who usually completed the trio, Morato, is left-footed, so the three became imbalanced. Jair has mostly played in a back four at Botafogo, but he looks like he would be a natural fit on the right of a three, making him potentially very valuable.

The third man on his way to Nottingham, left-back Cuiabano, only had about 20 minutes to show his stuff, coming off the bench to replace former Manchester United man Alex Telles. Immediately, though, you could see his intentions: he spent his first five minutes on the pitch virtually as a left-winger, fitting with scouting reports that describe him as a very attacking full-back.

When Steve McManaman joined Real Madrid, he said the first Spanish words he learned were “cover me”, barked at him as Michel Salgado charged upfield: Callum Hudson-Odoi, or whoever is likely to play on the left for Forest, might want to look up the Portuguese for that.

This was one game, so hasty conclusions should not be drawn. Who knows whether all three will adapt to the Premier League: for every Murillo, there’s a Gustavo Scarpa. On this evidence, Forest fans should probably expect three players who will beef up Nuno’s squad, but maybe not ones who will transform his team.

(Top photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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