Igor Thiago - from a construction worker and flyer distributor to a Premier League phenomenon

Thiago has become a phenomenon in the Premier League, scoring 8 goals in 11 matches for Brentford, carrying the club on his shoulders in the journey to stay in the 2025/26 season. The striker who has never played a match for the national team is surpassing a series of "blockbuster" transfers in the striker position and is only behind Haaland.

A collection of fairy tales from Premier League history will include Thiago, who has overcome adversity to become the top scorer almost a third of the way through the 2025/26 season.

At the age of 13, Thiago lost his father. The burden of family forced the Brentford striker to "enter the world" early for food and clothing, having experienced the most difficult jobs such as being a bricklayer, a janitor, a lawnmower, a errand boy at the fair and handing out flyers. Thiago found football at the age of 9 when he was inspired by his older brother Junior.

Thiago started out as a futsal player. He joined the Cruzeiro club's youth academy, then was promoted to the first team to compete in Serie B (Brazil's second division). Thiago continued to wander to Bulgaria, Belgium and joined Brentford for a club record fee of £30 million.

In the 2024/25 season, Thiago only played 8 matches for Brentford. The striker born in 2001 suffered a very serious meniscus injury, having to miss almost the entire season since July 2024. The British media wrote about Thiago as a risk of becoming Brentford's historic blunder. However, once again, the irony of fate did not make it difficult for Thiago.

Thiago is direct and extremely effective.

To get the transfer value of 30 million pounds, Thiago had 2 brilliant seasons with Club Brugge, scoring 20 and 29 goals respectively.

Brentford’s scouting team selected Thiago based on the Ivan Toney model. That is, a striker who tends to be wide, willing to press the front line at high intensity and has the ability to coordinate and link up with the back line. In the box, Thiago plays simply, directly, powerfully and is good in the air.

Thiago made his name "come into the light" with a double in Brentford's 3-1 win over MU. The two goals fully demonstrated Thiago's best qualities. In the first goal, he moved with a sense of feeling to break the offside trap, then received the ball and controlled it for a moment and fired a powerful left-footed shot. In the second goal, Thiago made a wall, ran smartly to get in the middle of MU's defense and fired a rebound to score.

After 11 appearances for Thiago in the 2025/26 Premier League, statistics show that the striker needs 3.1 shots for every goal. With a shot conversion rate of 32%, Thiago is more effective than Haaland (over 31%) and completely superior to blockbusters in the tournament such as Gyokeres (15.8%) and Sesko (11%). Among strikers who have scored over 3 goals, Thiago's conversion rate is only worse than Welbeck (46.2%).

Thiago is carrying the entire Brentford team. In the most recent match, he scored a double to help Brentford beat Newcastle. When playing at Brentford, of course, Thiago did not have much support from the surrounding satellites. The 2001-born striker's achievement of scoring 8 goals in 11 matches was truly surprising in a season with so many expected strikers but no one really shone except Haaland.

From injury nightmares, doubts to a spectacular comeback, Thiago's brilliance is nothing less than a quality new contract for Brentford. Before the 2025/26 season started, there were concerns about Brentford's collapse when they parted ways with the club's "architect" Thomas Frank and number 1 star Ryan Mbeumo at the same time. However, Thiago has stepped up to replace Mbeumo, becoming a strong leader to gradually lead the club out of the relegation zone.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/igor-thiago-tu-chang-phu-ho-phat-to-roi-den-hien-tuong-ngoai-hang-anh-post1796006.tpo