The Igor Jesus Nottingham Forest story has quietly become one of the more intriguing sub-plots of Oliver Glasner’s first season on the banks of the Trent. He arrived from Brazil as a champion of South America, and now finds himself in the most crowded forward line the Reds have had in years. Here is who the No.11 is, how he plays, and where he fits.
Who is Igor Jesus?
Igor Jesus is a Brazilian centre-forward, born in February 2001, who wears the No.11 shirt at the City Ground. He is a modern, mobile striker rather than a classic target man – strong across the shoulders, comfortable with his back to goal, but at his best running into space rather than waiting in it.
His route to England was not the conventional one. Rather than graduating straight from a big Brazilian academy into a European move, he spent a formative chunk of his early career in the United Arab Emirates before returning home. That detour is part of why he was still relatively unknown to English audiences when Forest moved for him.
The Botafogo years
Everything changed at Botafogo. Igor Jesus joined the Rio club and was central to the most successful season in their modern history, as Botafogo won the Copa Libertadores and the Brazilian league title in the same year – a South American double that put the entire squad on the radar of European recruitment departments.
Performing in knockout Libertadores football is a genuine test. It is physical, hostile and tactically cynical in a way that Premier League football often is not, and a striker who thrives in it tends to have a temperament that travels. That form also earned him a call-up to the Brazil senior squad, which remains the clearest external validation of his ceiling.
The move to Nottingham Forest
Forest completed the deal in the summer of 2025, with the fee widely reported at around £10 million – a modest outlay by the standards of the Marinakis era, and a deliberate contrast to the club-record business the Reds have done since. It fitted a recruitment pattern Forest have leaned on repeatedly: buy the proven performer from a market English clubs undervalue, rather than pay a premium for the same profile inside the Premier League.
You can trace that thinking across the Reds’ recent windows. Our guide to every Nottingham Forest transfer in 2026 shows how the club has since shifted towards bigger fees and established Premier League names, which makes the Igor Jesus deal look, in hindsight, like value.
What kind of striker is he?
Igor Jesus is a link-and-run forward. The most useful thing he does is give a team two options in the same movement: he will come short to receive with a defender tight to him and lay the ball off cleanly, then immediately spin in behind to attack the space he has just vacated. For a side that plays with attacking midfielders behind the striker, that repeated short-then-long pattern is enormously helpful.
He presses honestly, which matters under a head coach who wants his front line to set the trigger for everything behind it. He is a willing runner into the channels, and he is comfortable finishing from inside the box – more of a penalty-area finisher than a specialist from distance.
What he is not is an aerial focal point in the mould of Chris Wood, and he is not the sort of striker who will hold the ball up alone for long spells against a settled back three. If Forest are defending a lead and launching it, he is not the natural outlet. If Forest are pressing and playing forward quickly, he is close to ideal.
Where he fits under Glasner
This is where it gets competitive. Oliver Glasner, appointed in July 2026, inherited – and then added to – a striker department with genuine depth. Liam Delap arrived from Chelsea in August as the club’s record signing and is the marquee option. Chris Wood remains the No.9 whose penalty-box record is unarguable. Arnaud Kalimuendo is another forward who stayed put through the summer. Igor Jesus is competing with all of them for one shirt.
That competition is not theoretical. Forest have started the 2026/27 season without a win – two points from three Premier League games, with successive blanks at the City Ground against Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur either side of a 2-2 draw at Anfield. Goals, or the lack of them at home, are the story. The Nottingham Post’s analysis of how Glasner can get the best out of Delap makes the same underlying point: the head coach is still settling on the shape of his attack.
That is an opportunity as much as a problem for Igor Jesus. A striker who presses, runs the channels and links play is exactly the kind of forward a coach turns to when a game has gone flat and the opposition are sitting deep – and he offers something tactically different from both Delap and Wood, rather than being a straight understudy to either. We looked at that three-way call in detail in our piece on Forest’s starting-striker question.
What happens next
Forest return to action away at Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, at Villa Park, still chasing a first win of the campaign. It is precisely the sort of fixture – away from home, against a side that will have the ball for spells – where a forward who defends from the front and threatens in transition has obvious value.
Longer term, the picture is straightforward. Igor Jesus is a Brazil-capped, Libertadores-winning forward signed for a modest fee into a squad that has spent heavily around him. If he takes his chances when they come, he is a bargain and a useful weapon in a long season. If the goals do not arrive, the depth Forest built over the summer means the No.11 shirt becomes a difficult place to be. The next few months should tell us which.
You can find every current squad number in our Nottingham Forest squad numbers 2026/27 guide, and the full first-team list on the Premier League website.
