Nottingham Forest ‘urged to sign’ Helio Varela before World Cup exposure inflates fee | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest are being pointed towards Cape Verde winger Helio Varela as a smart World Cup pick-up, with his fee likely to rise if he impresses.

According to Nottingham Post, the GoHumanize study has matched Premier League clubs with 19 emerging talents and picks the 24-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv wide man for Vitor Pereira’s side. Its model draws on club data from 2024/25 and 2025/26 plus international matches from the past 24 months.

He carried a pre-tournament valuation of about three million pounds, and the study estimates a strong campaign could add £10 million. It describes him as a rapid transition runner suited to Forest’s counter-attacking game.

Varela was an unused substitute as Cape Verde held European champions Spain 0-0 in their opener, with Uruguay next on Sunday.

Forest have six contracted players at the tournament and boosted their wing options last summer with Dan Ndoye, Omari Hutchinson and Dilane Bakwa. That trio struggled to convince, and Callum Hudson-Odoi also had a difficult year. Pereira has indicated only minor tweaks are needed, keeping the core and adding a few key pieces for 2026/27.

Source: Nottingham Post