Sean Cole charts the rise of Igor Thiago, from the lower reaches of Brazilian football to the top of the Premier League scoring charts – and now possibly the World Cup
This article first appeared in the March 2026 issue of World Soccer
Brentford specialise in succession planning. The ability to spot and refine raw talent, sell it at a considerable profit and reinvest cleverly is the model that has powered the club’s extraordinary growth.
Over the past decade, Brentford have impressively regenerated their attack time and again. The departures of Neal Maupay, Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo brought in at least £200 million in player sales. Whenever a star player was sold, their replacement seamlessly filled the void.
Last summer Wissa and Mbeumo left, along with captain Christian Norgaard and manager Thomas Frank, and the Bees were widely tipped for relegation. This season promised to be the greatest test their model has faced and it’s proven as robust as ever, elevating a little-known Brazilian striker to hero status.
It was back in February 2024, with Toney preparing to leave, that a £30m deal for Club Brugge’s Igor Thiago was announced. His strength, determination and work rate had seen him prosper in Bulgaria and then Belgium. Now, following an injury-ravaged first campaign, he’s terrorising the Premier League too.
The route the 24-year-old target man has taken to reach this point, and a potential spot in Brazil’s World Cup squad, is far from conventional but he’s never stopped believing in himself. According to former Ludogorets team- mate Simon Sluga, people need to look past Thiago’s powerful build and sharp technique to see his greatest strength.
“In my opinion, it’s his mentality and personality, because I think those things can always push you to do more than you’re capable of,” he says. “His physicality and his talent will always be on a high level, but if you don’t have those other things, you can be average. You can be okay with whatever the situation is. You can be lazy. But he’s always working, wanting more and pushing. The sky’s the limit.”
Thiago was born in Gama, not far from Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. A tough upbringing moulded him into a resilient and strong-willed character. When he was 13, his father died. Forced to take on more responsibility at home, he worked a series of odd jobs, including as a bricklayer, to help support his mother.
A career in football felt like a pipedream but Thiago persevered, making his debut for Cruzeiro in January 2020, at the age of 18. Over the next two years, he scored ten goals in 64 appearances for the then second-tier club before deciding to test himself in Europe.
Joining Ludogorets in early 2022 was a giant leap into the unknown – a drastically different country, league and culture without the familiar comforts of home. Heavy investment had turned a small provincial club based in Razgrad into serial champions who were on course for their 11th consecutive title.
“When he came he didn’t speak English at all, so that was a little bit of an issue. But he started to learn,” recalls Sluga, a Croatian international goalkeeper. “You have a lot of Brazilians there – players and staff – so he communicated more through them, but he adapted very quickly.
“He was the third striker. For a few months, he was very patient. He was working and working. All the time, he was saying: ‘My time is going to come, and when it comes, I won’t let it go.’ He was like a magnet – all the good things that happened to him, he was provoking them.”
Ludogorets demanded success, and Thiago wasn’t judged to be ready straightaway. Initially, he played for the reserves in the second tier, notching three goals in his first two games. Almost two months after signing, he finally made his first-team debut against CSKA Sofia as a second-half substitute. Within a minute of entering the pitch, Thiago scored.
As the next season got underway Thiago was left out of the squad for Ludogorets’ opening two league games, but he seized the initiative on his first start, registering two goals and two assists in a 5-0 win. A relentless Thiago bullied the Spartak Varna defence and showed some nice footwork to set up Cicinho with a backheel.
“He’s one of the best characters I’ve met during my career,” says Sluga. “He’s a big competitor. He always wants to win and he always wants to score. One’s not enough, so he searches for the second. Two isn’t enough, so he searches for the third.
“He’s a very nice person. A very good friend and team-mate. We spent a lot of time together because at one point both our families went home so we were by ourselves for two or three months. We started spending time together and became friends.”
Thiago worked hard to improve his finishing and reaped the rewards when he finally became a regular. He found his rhythm, starting his last16 league games for Ludogorets and scoring12 goals, including a first professional hat-trick against Botev Vratsa. With Thiago leading the line, they won another title and reclaimed the Bulgarian Cup.
Determined to reach the highest level, Thiago knew that he needed to prove himself in a more competitive European league. Moving to Club Brugge in June 2023 seemed like the perfect step.
A fee of just under £7m made him the most expensive player in the history of the Bulgarian league.
“I just remember his big smile. He always has this great energy and he’s very welcoming,” says Danish winger Philip Zinckernagel, who arrived a few weeks later. “Pretty quickly, I had a good bond with him, especially off the pitch and in the dressing room. We spent a lot of time playing Teqball [a game played on a curved table, combining aspects of football and table tennis].
“He was one of those guys you could always joke and smile with. We had the same kind of humour. He also liked to do extras after training – shooting drills and stuff like that, always with a bit of competition and banter involved, so that was nice.”
After a positive start, Thiago suddenly hit a lean spell. Brugge dropped to seventh as he endured a run of nine league games without a goal. Zinckernagel remembers the crowd showing their frustration, but Thiago’s seemingly bulletproof self-belief never wavered.
“He had periods at the beginning of the season where he was struggling a little bit and the fans were tough on him. I think some were booing him. You could see he was a little bit sad about it, but he didn’t feel sorry for himself. He still came in smiling and was happy and just worked hard.”
When everything clicked, Thiago went on an incredible goalscoring run. Around the turn of the year, he bagged 11 goals in just six matches, five of them penalties. Shortly after, Brentford pounced. His aerial strength, intense pressing, and desire to improve were all ideally suited to their system.
Zinckernagel saw the biggest transformation in Thiago’s ability to receive the ball with his back to goal and bring others into play. “That part of his game got so much better, just the touches and using his body. By the end of the season, we could play it up [to him], he would hold players off and be a really solid station for us.
“We would play football on the ground, but if you’re struggling to get into their half, it’s great to have a striker that can help you do that. When you have good touches in hold-up play, you bring that confidence into the box and start scoring goals as well.”
In May 2024, Brugge surged to the title. “It meant a lot to him,” says Zinckernagel. “He had a knee injury at the end of the season and I think he was afraid of missing out on the trophy. He puts a lot of emotions into his football. You can probably see that when you watch him play. I guess it’s also what makes him special, because he’s always giving 100%.”
After scoring 53 goals across all competitions in Bulgaria and Belgium, Thiago was ready and primed for the Premier League.
But his first season at Brentford was a disaster, as knee injuries limited him to just eight appearances. In his absence, Wissa and Mbeumo thrived, and Thiago was the forgotten man. When the African duo secured high-profile moves last summer, few observers realised that in Thiago the Bees already had a ready-made attacking replacement.
After scoring his first for the club on the opening day, the goals continued to flow from there. At the start of January, a hat-trick against Everton was followed by a brace at home to Sunderland. Those two wins propelled the Bees up to fifth and meant that Thiago had made history: just 21 games into the Premier League season, he already had 16 goals – more than any Brazilian player had ever managed in a single campaign, beatingthetallyof15setpreviouslyby Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Martinelli and Matheus Cunha.
A committed Christian and family man, Thiago is married and has two young children that provide him with extra motivation. Because of his background, he has a real hunger to achieve and a greater appreciation of the privileged position he now finds himself in.
“It was clear that he wanted to go to the Premier League at some point. He believed in himself a lot,” says Zinckernagel. “I don’t know if I actually thought he would do it that quickly, but I’m very happy seeing him doing so well. With his mentality, I think he can do whatever he wants.”
Sluga keeps in touch with Thiago and is proud of the rapid progress he’s made. “I’m over the moon about it. As a footballer and a person, he deserves the best. For me, it’s not a surprise. I’m enjoying it, honestly. He’s always in my fantasy team! I have big trust in him to be there with Haaland! When he brings me points, I’m even happier!”
