Nottingham Forest defender Tobias Figueiredo has revealed his ambitions to play alongside fellow countrymen Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo in the Premier League.
Figueiredo, 27, has been with Nottingham Forest since joining from Sporting midway through the 2017/18 season. He’s since become a formidable name in the Forest defence having already amassed 100 league appearances for the club.
He’s featured 13 times in the Championship this season and has become a favoured name under new manager Steve Cooper.
Now though, speaking to Portuguese outlet A Bola (via Sport Witness) about hsi time in England and future plans, he’s said:
“I quickly adapted to the English game, it’s hard and with much more contact. There aren’t that many fouls, there are many shocks and contacts that are allowed. If I mark a striker in the box, he grabs me, I grab him and the referee doesn’t give anything.
“Whoever is stronger wins. I’ve evolved and I’m more mature, aware of the more intense style, of running and fighting, whereas in Portugal everything was more tactical.”
Figueiredo then went on to reveal that he was a boyhood Manchester United fan. He’s a product of the same Sporting Lisbon academy that Ronaldo graduated through before he went on to Manchester United and Real Madrid, and the Nottingham Forest man sees himself alongside Ronaldo and Fernandes too in the Premier League.
“I feel the Championship is a great showcase,” he continued. “If I had stayed in Portugal, I would only be better if I were playing for the big ones. So it’s not my goal to return, I believe that, at 27, I have that margin to reach the Premier League and see myself alongside Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and all the others. As a child I was a United fan, but in the Premier League any club is good.”
Players these days are peaking more later in their careers – Ronaldo is the perfect example of that – and so Figueiredo’s Premier League is still alive.
He’s been one of Forest’s more consistent performers this season and he could well be eyeing up promotion with the Reds, who currently sit in 13th-place of the table after an upturn in form since Cooper’s arrival.
But the Portuguese defender is out of contract next summer. He has between now and the end of the season to put in some quality performances in the Championship to either earn himself a new deal, or earn himself a surprise Premier League transfer.
Up next for Nottingham Forest is a trip to Reading after this international break.
