Second-leading scorer in the English Championship for Brentford, with 16 goals, and now Brazil’s top scorer in a single edition of the hottest league in the world — surpassing the mark previously shared by Roberto Firmino, Matheus Cunha and Gabriel Martinelli —, striker Igor Thiago, 24, is at his peak, without forgetting the troubles of the past.
Despite his recent success on British soil, there are many moments in which he still remembers on the phone with his mother, Maria Diva do Nascimento, his difficult childhood in Cidade Oeste, a municipality in Goiás close to the Federal District.
“Recently, with Thiago and his wife, I remembered a wheelbarrow that we got from a neighbor, Severino, so we could carry fruit at the market on the weekends. We almost cried again talking about it”, says Maria Diva to Sheet.
The act of generosity was never forgotten, as was a painful episode experienced by Maria Diva when Thiago was just nine years old, which had a profound impact on the family.
“Everyone gathered at my mother’s house and always brought a plate of food, but I couldn’t afford it at that time. I raised the boys alone, worked as a street cleaner. One person started humiliating me, saying that I only took my children to eat at other people’s expense. I took the children and left crying”, he recalls.
On the way, Igor Thiago hugged his crying mother and told her that he would change the family’s reality. “This promise has never been forgotten”, he adds.
The current goalscorer was introduced to football by his older brother, Maycon Richard Júnior, in the Grêmio Occidental project, led by Sérgio Gonçalves, whom he affectionately calls father or Sergião. The work he develops includes children from the so-called “third sector” in the Federal District.
Thiago started futsal at the age of eight and, shortly after, began to stand out on the pitch, but suffered a setback along the way with the early loss of his father, at the age of 13.
Gonçalves began to take close care of his pupil and used barriers such as the nine kilometer distance that separated the house he lived in, in the Dom Bosco neighborhood, from the dirt field known as “Terrão”, to encourage him.
Premier League top scorers*
- Erling Haaland – Manchester City – Norway – 20 goals
- Igor Thiago – Brentford – Brazil – 16 goals
- Antoine Semenyo – Manchester City – Gana – 10 goals
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin – Leeds United – Inglaterra – 9 gols
- Hugo Ekitiké – Liverpool – France – 8 goals
- Danny Welbeck – Brighton and Hove Albion – England – 8 goals
- Jean-Philippe Mateta – Crystal Palace – France – 8 goals
- Bruno Guimarães – Newcastle United – Brazil – 8 goals
- Junior Kroupi – Bournemouth – France – 7 goals
- Nick Woltemade – Newcastle United – Germany – 7 goals
*until the 21st round of the 2025/26 season
He walked or ran the route every day, transforming precarious logistics into physical conditioning training. An evangelical pastor, the training coach still advised and monitored his school performance.
“I say that Thiago is a boy who was born to score goals, but I always say that his difference was that he wanted much more than others. He knew where he wanted to get to”, says the coach.
“He always said that Thiago would be a player, that’s all he said. Sometimes, he would show up at home with boots for him to train in, with socks that he couldn’t afford to buy. He never gave up on my son”, says Maria Diva.
His insistence attracted the attention of former striker Tico, who played for clubs such as São Paulo, Athletico-PR and Coritiba. The then Furacão scout took Igor Thiago for three testing periods at the club, which ended without approval. The laps almost caused him to give up.
“During one of the testing periods, he experienced a moment of depression. He called me every day crying: ‘Dad, I can’t handle it, I’m going to give up’. But I always calmed him down, supported him afterwards”, says Sérgio Gonçalves.
“On one of the trips home, I arrived for lunch and was lying down, discouraged. I said that I had stopped training, that I didn’t want football anymore. I asked: ‘Thiago, what about that promise you made to me?’ He got up right away”, adds his mother.
A new chance obtained by Tico, this time to play for Verê, a small team from the city of Paraná with just 7,000 inhabitants, changed the course of its history once and for all.
The number 9 stood out in the under-17 Paranaense Championship campaign. He also played three games as a professional, in the third division of the state, before catching the attention of Cruzeiro.
“He was always different, hungry for learning. Physically enviable and emotionally very strong. We did work on his left leg and technical refinement. I joked that he didn’t know how to head the ball. The other day he scored in the Premier League and I teased him: ‘Oh, now I see a real player'”, remembers Bruno Saymon, Verê’s coach.
Igor Thiago played in Série B for Cruzeiro, scoring ten goals in 64 games, until being traded to Ludogorets in 2022 for R$3.6 million. In just over a year in Bulgaria, he was sold to Club Brugge. He was champion and top scorer in Belgium, with 29 goals and six assists, catching the attention of Brentford.
His arrival in the Premier League for 30 million pounds (R$216 million) was halted by a new setback: a serious meniscus injury, in July 2024. He spent four months without playing, compromising his first season, which ended with eight games.
Now recovered and breaking records, he dreams of convincing the Brazilian team’s technical committee for a place on the FIFA Date in March, for the friendlies against France and Croatia, the last testing period before the World Cup. In any case, the promise made to the mother has already been fulfilled.
