Igor Thiago is currently at the peak of his form. He has demonstrated versatility in scoring with both feet, headers, and penalties. This season, he has netted four Premier League goals, each scored in a unique manner.

His performance has captured global attention. Such is the case when you score twice against Manchester United, overpowering their defense and helping Brentford secure a remarkable victory, positioning them above United in the Premier League standings, as he did last Saturday.

The Brazilian’s breakthrough comes after a challenging year in west London, which was marred by injuries and limited him to just eight appearances following his then club-record £30 million transfer from Club Bruges.

‘This is an amazing time for me,’ says Thiago, as he prefers to be known. ‘After almost a year of injury.

‘I’m thrilled with my comeback, my performance, and my contributions through goals and strong plays on the field. I couldn’t have had a better start to the season than I have now.’

‘I wasn’t focused on the fact that it was United or anything like that on Saturday. My aim was simply to play well and have a solid game. Thankfully, with divine intervention, I was given the chance to score twice and deliver a strong performance.’

‘When I saw everyone discussing my performance, I realized the significance of the match. It was a game noticed by people around the world.’

In addition to a Carabao Cup strike at Bournemouth, Thiago’s four goals in the league is a mark bettered only this season by Erling Haaland, who is in town this weekend looking to add to his tally of eight.

The Norwegian would also like his Premier League Golden Boot back from Mohamed Salah, having won it in his first two seasons in England. But Thiago has designs on it too.

‘We strikers always think about it,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Because it’s our job to score goals. And I definitely think about being top scorer, definitely.

‘We know (City) is going to be a tough game, a very tough one, but in football, nothing’s impossible. Anything can happen. The team is doing well, we’ve been working hard all week, and we’ll undoubtedly get a positive result at home.’

They have reasons to be optimistic. Brentford have a decent record against City, beating them home and away in the Treble-winning campaign and coming from 2-0 down late on last season to draw at the Gtech. As for Thiago, the 24-year-old isn’t fazed by much, given his upbringing. It’s quite a tale.

His dream of becoming a footballer began at the age of nine, when he saw his older brother playing. Junior took Thiago to games and showed him how beautiful the sport was. ‘The joy he had in his eyes…’ he remembers.

The family is from Gama, a city in the centre of the country about an hour’s drive from the capital Brasilia, and his first steps in football came at a small club called Gremio Ocidental. It was also at that time that he started working wherever he could.

‘I started playing at this club and performed well,’ he says. ‘The coach, Sergio, really believed in me. He saw that I had potential, that I was good. At that time, because I hadn’t played football for long, my skills weren’t as advanced as those of other kids my age. He worked on that with me.

‘I started working very young. My first jobs were weeding plots of land when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I saw my father and grandfather doing it in the fields, and I wanted to be like my father, so I began weeding too. Sometimes neighbours would ask me, “Can you weed my yard?” and I’d earn about 50 reais (£7) for it.

‘At the same time, I was playing futsal. I went to school in the afternoons, and in the mornings I either helped with weeding or played football with my friends. After school, I’d always go running — every single day.’

Tragedy struck when he was 13. His father, Valter, died at the age of just 39, and Thiago was forced to support his mother, Maria Diva, who worked as a street cleaner.

‘That was a very difficult time for us, things at home started to get really difficult,’ he says. ‘My mother… things started to get tough for her.

‘My father was a very important person to me because he was my support system. I don’t usually talk about him much in interviews, I don’t like to, but I think the time has come to talk about him a little.

‘He was someone who, wow, at that moment, during that period of education, of growth as a man, losing him was a huge loss for me.’

Thiago continued to play and to work. Shortly after his father’s death, he started handing out supermarket flyers on Fridays, sometimes skipping school to do so, and being paid to carry people’s groceries home from the market in a wheelbarrow – bought for him by his neighbour – from 6.30am to 3.30pm on Saturdays, all to support his mother. ‘Sometimes we literally had no money for food,’ he says.

He didn’t stop there. ‘I also helped my uncle, who was a bricklayer,’ he adds. ‘Whenever he had construction jobs, I’d go with him. Those jobs as a kid were really important for my growth. They taught me to value things, to appreciate hard work, and they motivated me to pursue what I have today.

‘With my father’s loss, I had to grow up very quickly, I had to mature very quickly, and that’s when I started, literally, to give my all for football, with my mother always supporting me.’

After a few years of trying and two failed trials at top-flight side Athletico Paranaense, however, his drive left him. 

He recalls: ‘My mom saw me on the couch, she came to me and said, “Son, what are you doing?”. I’ve never been one to sit on the couch, always training, always doing something to play.

‘She said, “Aren’t you going to train? Are you not going to play football any more?” And I didn’t say anything. At that moment I thought, “Wow, I’m losing my dreams”.

‘That’s when I started training again. At that very moment, I went out for a run. I ran during the week like this, every day, eight to 10 kilometres a day. Every day.’

That was Thiago’s turning point. He had a successful trial at local side Futebol Clube Vere, and joined their Under 17s in 2018. His strong performances caught the eye of a giant.

Cruzeiro, four-time champions of Brazil and twice of South America, saw he had potential and snapped him up for their Under 20s at the age of just 17. From there Europe came calling, first the Bulgarian side Ludogorets, then Club Bruges, and now Brentford. All in the space of five years.

‘My career has been very fast,’ he says. ‘I didn’t have that kind of foundational development that an athlete must have. When I made mistakes back then, that made me grow so I could become stronger today. Because today, if I know how to do something, it was because of my mistakes back then.’

Brentford have gone through many changes this summer: the departure of coach Thomas Frank, captain Christian Norgaard, and key players Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. With a rookie manager in Keith Andrews installed, and players like Thiago asked to fill the 40-goal void of Mbeumo and Wissa while still finding their feet, many had them pegged as a relegation candidate.

But the Bees are 13th in the Premier League, with two wins and a draw from their first six games. United got a bloody nose last week and they won’t be the last.

‘The press says something about Brentford every year!’ laughs Thiago. ‘I think we’re very underrated. Our squad is a very good group, because this league demands that.

‘What we deliver throughout the week is something no one sees. Everyone works, everyone dedicates themselves, everyone has the same goal. If you look at our locker room, no one has any ego issues. There’s no such thing as vanity.’

Andrews, who stepped up to the top job from being set-piece coach, praised Thiago in his press conference after the United game, calling him a selfless player, always putting the team first and sometimes to the detriment of his own performance.

And for Thiago the performances have been a direct result of their strong relationship.

‘Our connection is a genuine connection, you know?’ he says of Andrews. ‘When he talks about being part of the dressing room, I think it’s that Brazilian warmth, that high esteem, that good energy, nice energy, always being there with a smile on your face, with gratitude.

‘In the locker room, where different cultures exist, sometimes people get withdrawn. I’m always smiling, I arrive every day smiling, because when I arrived, Yehor Yarmolyuk was a guy that didn’t laugh at anything. He wouldn’t even talk to anyone properly.

‘And then, after I arrived, even he started laughing, you know? Everyone looks at me and says, “What energy, what a person”. So, I think that’s me, being able to bring that joy to the locker room.’

He also sees the pressure of replacing Ivan Toney, as he was originally brought in to do last season, as a privilege. 

‘I didn’t see it as pressure, no,’ he says. ‘I think it was more because of my performance at Club Bruges, “Oh, wow, he’s doing well, he’s scoring goals, he’s performing well”. 

‘It gave me more confidence knowing that the club trusted me, that I could replace someone as good as him.’ 

Thiago is yet to be capped by the Brazilian national team, now led by Carlo Ancelotti, but it appears that it is in England that the head coach will find his No 9.

Thiago’s rivals for that shirt are Richarlison, Matheus Cunha, Joao Pedro and Igor Jesus, the Nottingham Forest striker.

And whoever does claim the famous jersey will likely lead their nation into next summer’s World Cup in North America, in pursuit of a record-extending sixth global crown.

‘I’ve always dreamed of being able to play for Brazil,’ says Thiago. ‘I always ask God that when he takes me to the national team, I don’t want to go just for the sake of it. When I get there, I want to stay.

‘The competition is very good, because it means we have a very good attack. And I’m a good player. These are high-level players, competing in the Premier League, such a tough competition. My moment will come.

‘I’m not in a hurry, I’m not sad or anxious about anything, because I know that, when it’s my moment, I know I will go and I will stay. Without a doubt. I’m patient, I’m confident, and when the opportunity comes, I’ll be ready to take it and never let it go.’