New signing Danilo has spoken about Gustavo Scarpa’s role in helping him join Nottingham Forest.
Danilo, a highly-rated defensive midfielder, completed his move to the City Ground on Monday. Despite still only being 21, he has already clocked up considerable experience across his 141 appearances for Palmeiras, coupled with winning two Copa Libertadores and a league title.
It was this pedigree that brought the attention of several elite teams across Europe but Forest fought off the competition, reuniting him with one of his former Palmeiras teammates in the process. Danilo has explained the influence that Scarpa had in him opting to join Steve Cooper’s side and admits that the 29-year-old is helping him settle into life in England.
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"It was decisive in my choice, I'd already chosen Nottingham Forest and Scarpa just gave me that additional nudge,” he told the club website . “I'm really grateful to him, he's helped me ever since I originally arrived at Palmeiras.
"Now we're teammates again at Forest and it's exciting. Hopefully we'll have some glory years together here. He has also given me a couple of Rubik's Cubes, I finished one with him already and there's another still to do.”
The growing Brazilian contingent at Forest, including Renan Lodi, will be important as Danilo adapts to his new club, on and off the pitch. He will be learning English alongside Scarpa but can also look to his countrymen to relay Cooper’s tactical instructions.
"Gustavo listens to music in English and speaks the language well, so he's told me to get practising! I started learning and then had a break, but I'll be learning with him now over time,” he added.
"It's really good to have two Brazilians and both Gustavo and Renan are communicating well in English now. This will help me a lot to understand what the manager wants from me, and to communicate with my teammates as well."
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