"It's not for me to say if I'm good or bad," ventured Jussie at his first press conference after joining Lens in January. "It's up to you journalists to analyse my game and make those judgements." Cue feedback from his microphone and awkward silence from the assembled hacks. You can almost picture the young Brazilians' new teammates shaking their heads with disbelief in the wings.

Not too many footballers are willing to leave their reputations in the hands of the European sporting press, but, whether he was being deceptively cock-sure or plain naïve, Jussie is entitled to give himself a little pat on the back. With less than a year in France under his belt, the verdicts are in and plaudits are anything but thin on the ground. The architect of Les Sang et Or's thrilling 4-3 victory away to Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday, Jussie is now an integral part of the northerners' forward line and he has achieved that distinction a lot quicker than anyone expected.

Club President Gervais Martel introduced his powerful new acquisition as, "a player for the future, for the years to come," at the start of 2005, yet there he is at the top of the assists table with five decisive passes before most people's Christmas decorations have even gone up. His three strikes this season have been gratefully received as well, but it is his unselfishness in front of goal that has done most to win him admirers – not to mention comparisons with Thierry Henry. And capable of running 100 metres in 11 seconds, the 22-year-old is arguably quicker than the fleet-footed Arsenal star.

A neat capsule of his qualities, the goal he set up for Ivory Coast international Aruna Dindane on 70 minutes at the weekend was classic Henry. Receiving the ball on the halfway line, Jussie surged towards Lionel Letizi's goal at speed, inviting the capital side's defenders to close him down. As four of them prepared to converge on the edge of the area, the former Cruzeiro man splayed the ball out right to the onrushing Dindane, who calmly jabbed his shot just inside the near post.

Taking the score to 4-1, that strike ought to have been academic, yet a late lapse in concentration allowed Pedro Pauleta and Mario Yepes to stage a dramatic, late rally that added undue respectability to the scoreline. An equaliser proved beyond them, however, and Lens left the Parc des Princes with their fourth straight win there and a result that has many at the club believing they can finish in the Champions' League places.

One man unlikely to argue with their chances is Letizi himself, who likened watching Francis Gillot's team pour forward from between his sticks to "watching a steamroller". And no player better fitted that description than man-of-the-match Jussie, who also swung in the corner for Dindane's first and netted goal number three himself after Edouard Cissé's suicidal back-pass left him one-on-one with the bewildered PSG goalkeeper.

"He's an intelligent player who reads the game well," enthused Gillot. "He can score with both feet and his head and he's pretty quick. For me, he's the complete player." The Lens trainer may not be a paid-up member of the journalists' union, but it's probably safe to say Jussie can find it within himself to forgive him.