Nottingham Forest have been linked to Jair Cunha, Igor Jesus and Cuiabano, all of whom played a part in Botafogo’s surprise 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain at the FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday.
It was a result few would have seen coming.
Paris Saint-Germain went into their second game of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup having won their last three matches by an aggregate score of 12-0. Those games included thrashing Inter 5-0 in the UEFA Champions League final and dispatching Atlético Madrid 4-0 in their opening game in the United States.
However, Botafogo were able to beat PSG at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday, with a deflected goal from Igor Jesus enough to secure a shock 1-0 victory for the winners of last year’s Copa Libertadores.
Something else people may not have seen coming was Premier League side Nottingham Forest being linked with not one, not two, but three Botafogo players heading into the Club World Cup, and all three featured in the Brazilian club’s famous win over the European champions.
Here, we take a look at reported Forest targets Jair Cunha, Igor Jesus and Cuiabano to see what Nuno Espírito Santo might be getting if deals ultimately come to fruition for the trio.
Igor Jesus
Let’s start with the headline act of the trio: striker Igor Jesus.
Botafogo have won both of their Club World Cup matches so far, including dethroning European Champions PSG on Thursday. Jesus scored the winning goal in both games and was named Player of the Match in each as well. Not a bad way to audition for a potential Premier League move.
Jesus would be arguably the biggest coup of Forest’s three transfer targets. He’s the only one of the three to have been capped by Brazil’s senior national team and he even scored on his debut, netting against Chile last year in 2026 World Cup qualification.
His winner against PSG did require a big slice of luck, with his strike from the edge of the box taking a wicked deflection that wrong-footed Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal.
But his movement to create the chance for himself was excellent. When Botafogo won the ball back in midfield, Jesus was immediately on the move, surging between PSG’s centre-backs…
…before producing a deft nutmeg on the recovering Willian Pacho to carve out space for the shot.
Botafogo were never going to dominate the ball against PSG, who are one of the most technically gifted teams in world football, and ended the game with just 25.4% possession.
You might expect a central striker to be feeding off scraps in a game like that, but that wasn’t the case with Jesus. He made 49 touches during the game, the third-most of any Botafogo player, and his touch map below shows how deep he dropped to support build-up and contribute defensively.
That’s not to say he doesn’t fulfil the more traditional target-man duties, either. Jesus contested a team-high 16 duels against PSG and won five aerial battles, offering a constant outlet up front.
In Botafogo’s tournament opener against Seattle, they often looked to go long to Jesus, who did an excellent job of holding the ball up. He won six of his seven aerial duels in that game and contributed in the air offensively as well. His winner came from a header, and he also had another headed attempt well saved in the first half.
His headline numbers for goals are not spectacular. Jesus has netted just 17 goals across 47 matches in all competitions at Botafogo across the last two seasons. But Nottingham Forest see value in his all-round game. He is a more mobile forward than someone like Chris Wood, capable of leading the line or drifting wide to receive the ball. He’d be a good addition to both relieve the pressure on Wood and also partner him up front should Nuno ever need to play with two strikers.
With goals for Brazil and now two on the global stage for Botafogo, there’s a belief that Jesus is ready for the next step.
Jair Cunha
Forest’s centre-back partnership of Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic was the most used by any manager in the Premier League last season. The pair played together 31 times as a two in the league, at least two more times than any other, and they enjoyed a 52% win percentage and kept 10 clean sheets together. Only Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté and Newcastle’s Dan Burn and Fabian Schär kept more shutouts (both 11).
Nuno Espírito Santo did revert to a back three at times, with Morato coming in to join Murillo and Milenkovic on four occasions. Forest won two and lost two of those games.
Willy Boly has also recently signed a new deal to stay at the City Ground, so you might wonder why Forest are targeting another centre-back. But in Jair Cunha they would be getting a promising young talent who could help them navigate a campaign that will include European football next season.
The 20-year-old only moved to Botafogo from Santos in February, but has impressed enough already to potentially earn a move to the Premier League.
Jair has played in all 11 of Botafogo’s Brazilian Serie A games this season, and despite his tender age, has already shown a penchant for winning his battles.
He’s won 21 of his 26 aerial duels in the league, aided by standing at an imposing 6-foot-6, with only one defender in the division able to better his 80.8% win percentage (minimum 20 aerial duels contested). Only two players to have contested at least 30 overall duels can beat his success rate of 71.9% (46 of 64).
Jair’s aerial ability was on show in Botafogo’s Club World Cup opener against Seattle Sounders, with Jair scoring his first ever senior goal. Alex Telles swung the ball in and the defender rose above everyone to nod in from close range to open the scoring in the Brazilians’ 2-0 victory.
It was at the back where he impressed in the shock win over PSG on MD 2, though.
The European champions were kept at bay by an impressive defensive display from Botafogo. Jair himself completed 20 of his 22 passes (90.9%), won two of his three duels, won possession three times, made two tackles and seven clearances.
The experienced Alexander Barboza, 10 years Jair’s senior, was the more aggressive of the two. He won seven of his eight duels, won possession six times, made six tackles and nine clearances, though completed just 14 of his 28 passes (50%), making significantly more ambitious attempts than his young partner.
At just 20, there are understandably still rough edges to Jair’s game, but to play a significant role in keeping out an attack featuring Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué, Gonçalo Ramos, and latterly Lee Kang-In and Bradley Barcola is not to be sniffed at. Should he move to Forest, playing with Murillo and/or Milenkovic would likely only benefit him.
Cuiabano
Of the three, Cuiabano is seemingly the one whose future is less certain, as he wasn’t namechecked on Thursday when reports began to circulate that Forest were “close to completing” a deal for Jair and Igor Jesus.
While the same speculation points out that the interest in Cuiabano remains, talks are apparently not as advanced, which may have something to do with Brighton’s apparent interest.
Either way, there’s a reasonable chance he’ll be gracing the Premier League next season. If he is, audiences will get to feast their eyes on an all-action left-back.
Cuiabano is renowned for being an offensive full-back also capable of playing further up the pitch, such is his positivity and purpose.
And although defensively he isn’t regarded as being quite as impressive, he is aggressive, strong and persistent. Certainly, there are the makings of a very promising full-back.
Against PSG, that was actually the side of his game on display more – perhaps unsurprisingly. Despite playing a little over 20 minutes as a second-half substitute, much like the Matchday 1 win over the Sounders, Cuiabano was involved relatively frequently.
He quickly threw himself into a tussle with Kvaratskhelia, barging the Georgian winger out of the way before recovering possession and playing a couple of one-twos with Santiago Rodríguez at the start of a promising counter-attack that ultimately fizzled out with a teammate’s overhit pass in midfield.
But soon after he was again having to defend, this time against the trickery of Doué. He stood up to the Frenchman’s attempt to nutmeg him, and then showed his strength to essentially wrestle the winger into touch to win Botafogo a throw-in.
With the game entering its closing stages and Botafogo hanging on, Cuiabano had to put himself about twice in quick succession. One forceful challenge stopped João Neves taking up possession just inside the right side of the area; then, he tracked Achraf Hakimi’s off-ball run into the centre and brilliantly intercepted a pass to the Moroccan with a well-timed lunge.
Of course, his all-action style does bring certain risks with it. He’s not a stranger to a yellow card, and he earned one here as he went through the back of Lee Kang-in inside the PSG half in a fairly desperate attempt to force a high turnover.
But that didn’t seem to throw him off.
While he did allow Hakimi a little too much room for a stoppage-time cross, which was cleared by Barboza, in a similar scenario about a minute later, he produced a fine sliding tackle on his counterpart to hook the ball away when the PSG star looked to be escaping. Cue a passionate celebration towards the crowd.
Perhaps he’ll get his first start of the tournament on Matchday 3 versus Atlético Madrid. If he does, his no-holds-barred approach could be an entertaining and combustible mix when pitted against Diego Simeone’s fiery team.
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