Viktor Gyökeres is currently the best striker in the world - at least the statistics speak for themselves. The Swede, who plays for Sporting Lisbon, even outdoes the likes of Erling Haaland, Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane.
Viktor Gyökeres joined the Portuguese capital from Coventry City in the English second division in the summer of 2023. The transfer fee of around €21 million is the highest Sporting has ever paid to another club. The expectations of the new attacker were correspondingly high. And Gyökeres has fulfilled them completely: In his first season for Sporting Lisbon, he scored 43 goals and provided 15 assists in 50 games across all competitions.
Haaland, Lewa and Kane have been left behind
This season, the striker has gone one better, not least because the Swede is now also proving his scoring prowess in the national team. On Tuesday evening, Gyökeres scored a brace in the 6:0 win against Azerbaijan. This makes the 26-year-old the top scorer in the Nations League - he has scored a total of nine goals for Tre Kronor. Second place goes to Erling Haaland (7 goals), with former champion Cristiano Ronaldo in fourth place (5 goals).
But Gyökeres is not only at the top of his game in the national team. This season, too, the 1.87-metre tall lump can often show off his now famous mask cheer at Sporting. He kept the meaning behind it a secret for a long time before revealing the secret after the championship last year. "Nobody cared until I put on the mask," Gyökeres quoted Batman opponent Bane on Instagram.
The man with the Hungarian surname has currently scored a total of 32 goals for the club and national team this season - and there is still a long way to go. A comparison with the competition shows just how strong this mark is. Erling Haaland is in first place, having scored 22 times for Manchester City and Norway. Third place is shared by Polish goalscorer Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona) and England captain Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) with 20 goals.
"Worth 100 million euros"
No wonder the top clubs are queuing up for the technically complete striker, who only really made his breakthrough at the age of 24 (his previous stations were Brommapojkarna, Brighton, St. Pauli, Swansea and Coventry). The Swede still has a contract in the Portuguese capital until 2028, but anyone wanting to secure his services will have to dig deep into their pockets.
Rúben Amorim, until recently his coach at Sporting (moved to Manchester United during the international break), emphasized: "Viktor is a great player and I believe he is worth 100 million euros. So that's the price: anyone who wants to sign him will have to pay 100 million".
The club will presumably settle for a few million less. Gyökeres is relaxed about the hype surrounding him: "The speculation is a sign that I have performed well. But I don't take it too seriously, because it's just speculation. But of course it's also nice. We'll see this summer. I don't know myself what will happen. I feel very comfortable at Sporting and don't feel any stress," he said last spring.
