Jair Cunha is the Nottingham Forest player whose stock has risen faster than anyone else’s this year, and on 10 September 2026 he got the clearest possible confirmation of it: a first senior call-up to the Brazil squad, at 21, from a defender who was not even a guaranteed starter for the Reds twelve months ago. This is the story of the No.23 — where he came from, what kind of centre-back he is, and why Oliver Glasner has built so much of his back three around him.
Who is Jair Cunha?
Jair is a Brazilian central defender, born in 2005, and a product of the Santos academy — the same production line that has been turning out technically schooled Brazilian footballers since long before anyone reading this was born. He came through at the Vila Belmiro and broke into the senior side as a teenager, which in Brazilian football is a meaningful test in itself: the Campeonato Brasileiro is physical, chaotic and unforgiving of young centre-backs.
The first thing anyone notices about him is the frame. Jair is a genuinely big man — listed at around 6ft 5in — and he carries it without the heaviness that height often brings in a defender. That combination of reach and reasonable feet is exactly the profile Premier League clubs have spent the last few years hunting in South America, and it is why Forest moved for him rather than waiting to see whether a bigger club did.
How Jair Cunha joined Nottingham Forest
He signed for Forest from Santos in 2025, one of a series of recruitment moves in that period aimed at Brazil rather than the established European market — the same policy that brought Murillo to the City Ground from Corinthians and Igor Jesus from Botafogo.
His first phase at the club was a slow one, and Glasner has been open about that. “He was not a regular starter last year,” the head coach said this week. That is an unglamorous but normal arc for a young Brazilian defender arriving in England: the pace of the league, the refereeing, the aerial duels and the sheer volume of matches all take adjusting to, and Forest had Nikola Milenković, Murillo and Morato ahead of him in the queue.
He wears No.23, one of the middle-order numbers in a defensive group that has been reshuffled heavily over the past two windows — the current allocation is set out in our guide to Nottingham Forest’s squad numbers for 2026/27.
What kind of centre-back is he?
Jair is, first and foremost, a duel-winner. The height gives him a natural advantage defending crosses and long balls, and it makes him a genuine weapon at attacking set plays — a useful thing for a Forest side that has often had to find goals from restarts rather than from long spells of possession.
What has surprised people is how well he defends space rather than just bodies. Big centre-backs are typically vulnerable to runners in behind and to strikers who drop off and turn; Jair covers ground better than his size suggests and is comfortable stepping out of the line to meet the ball rather than retreating and inviting pressure. That is close to a prerequisite in Glasner’s structure.
He is also a willing progressive passer. He does not force the spectacular diagonal, but he will carry the ball out of defence when the space opens in front of him, which in a back three is a way of manufacturing an extra man in midfield without changing shape.
Jair Cunha’s role in Glasner’s system
Glasner arrived in July 2026 from Crystal Palace and brought his back three with him. In our breakdown of Glasner’s 3-4-2-1, the demands on the three central defenders are specific: the wide two have to defend one-on-one in big spaces when the wing-backs push on, and all three have to be composed enough to hold possession while the front five reorganise.
Jair has slotted into that better than almost anyone expected. Glasner singled out the goalless draw with Tottenham Hotspur at the City Ground on 5 September and the 2-2 at Liverpool the week before as the performances that earned the Brazil call. “He had amazing performances, against Tottenham and at Liverpool,” the head coach said. “That’s why he deserves to be called up by Brazil.”
His importance has also grown by subtraction. Forest sanctioned a set of deadline-day loans on 1 September — Morato to West Ham United, Zach Abbott to Southampton — leaving Glasner with thinner centre-back cover than he would like even after the £34m arrival of Ousmane Diomande from Sporting CP. Jair is no longer a development project being eased in. He is a starter the side cannot easily replace.
The Brazil call-up
The reward came on 10 September. Jair was named in a senior Brazil squad for the first time and will link up with the national side later this month for a double-header against Australia followed by a friendly with India, as reported by the Nottingham Post.
Glasner used it as a message to the rest of his dressing room rather than a private celebration. “It shows how quick things can happen, especially in football,” he said, before adding that “many players in our team have the potential to play for their country — but it’s not just about having potential, you have to show it every single week.” The full set of his remarks is in our report on the Jair Cunha Brazil call-up.
Jair Cunha: the quick answers
- Position: centre-back, most often on the left or in the middle of a back three
- Squad number: 23
- Age: 21
- Nationality: Brazilian — first senior call-up September 2026
- Previous club: Santos
- Signed: 2025
What comes next
The immediate task is a first Forest win of 2026/27. Glasner’s side have taken two points from their opening three league games and travel to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday at 3pm before the international break takes Jair to South America. Nicolò Savona is the only absentee.
Beyond that, the honest read on Jair is that Forest have a 21-year-old international centre-back on their books whose value has moved considerably in two months, at a club that has shown it will sell at the right number — Elliot Anderson went to Manchester City for a reported £116m this summer. Keeping him developing at the City Ground rather than cashing in is the more interesting version of the story, and it is the one Glasner appears determined to write. Squad and career details are published on the official Nottingham Forest website, with match-by-match data available from the Premier League.
