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Fan will Love him: Nottingham Forest to make another transfer brilliance

Nottingham Forest in six-club chase as they aim to repeat transfer trick

Nottingham Forest are one of six clubs reportedly chasing Botafogo’s young attacker Igor Jesus.

The 23-year-old has only just returned to South America after four years playing in Dubai. Jesus has scored five goals in 13 league starts for O Glorioso and that has led to a call-up to Dorival Junior’s national squad.

He scored in their 2-1 win over Chile in a 2026 World Cup qualifier and his achievements are now sparking the interest of clubs in England. Arsenal and Chelsea are said to be in the hunt while Newcastle, Brentford, Brighton and Forest are also reported to be keeping tabs on him.

Forest have proven how Brazilian talent can make an impact in the Premier League with the success of Danilo being a prime example. Jesus came through the youth ranks at Coritiba, having joined the club at 13.

He made his senior debut as a substitute in 2019 when they faced Maringa in a Campeonato Paranaense game. He moved to Shabab Al Ahli in Dubai in 2020 and scored an impressive 34 goals in 66 league appearances.

 

Chris Wood makes bold future plans

All Whites’ captain Chris Wood has revealed his remarkable future ambition.

It feels like he has been around forever – the striker made his international debut in 2009 – but there could be a lot more to come. The 32-year-old hopes to play for another five or six seasons, at the highest level that he can.

Not only does he want to remain in the English Premier League for as long as possible but he also has his sights set on the 2030 Fifa World Cup.

“For me, football is my life,” says Wood. “And I do want to play as long as possible – until I can’t really. That’s the mindset and the plan at the moment. Five to six years is probably what I’m looking at. I’d love to go to 38 [years old] but that’s obviously down to a lot of things; club, national team, fitness, everything like that – it all rolls into one. So you can have a plan but as 16 years have shown me in football, plans don’t always work out.”

Still, Wood is working backwards from 2030, with the curtain call at another edition of football’s biggest show. He admits that might be a long-term, stretch goal but it isn’t completely unrealistic, given his achievements, his longevity so far and his single-minded pursuit of ongoing excellence.

“Loosely, it’s the 2030 World Cup,” explains Wood, when asked why he wanted to continue until 38. “Most footballers, certainly me, work in terms of cycles so obviously the next World Cup is 2026.

“I want to play till then and then the cycle after that becomes more down to where I’m playing, who I’m playing for and things like that. I can’t perceive where I’m going to be [but] hopefully, I’m still playing in the Premier League.

“That means I can still play national team and keep kicking on but you never know where football takes you. You can only look across the next couple of years at the moment, but long-term the plan is to play until 2030.”

Wood has reasons to be optimistic, currently enjoying one of the best periods of his career. There have been good spells before, especially at Burnley and at Leeds in the Championship, but this has been particularly special.

He has made a hot start to this season, with four goals in seven games. They have been important strikes too, including last Monday against Chelsea which earned a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, helping Nottingham Forest to 10th on the ladder. That form is off the back of an impressive second half of last season, with 11 goals in 16 matches.

It was quite a turnaround, considering his pre-season was compromised by the lingering effects of a hamstring injury (“probably the worst of my career”), before he struggled to get game time, with only four starts across the first 17 games.

His revival coincided with the arrival of new manager Nuno Espirito Santo after Steve Cooper was sacked in mid-December. It was a fraught time, with Forest near the relegation zone, but Wood responded well. He grabbed a goal and an assist in Nuno’s first game, before an unforgettable hat trick three days later at Newcastle, in a 3-1 win over his former club.

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