Why Victor Gyökeres is Perfect Striker for Premier League

It is quite rare that a football player's name outside the top 5 leagues makes headlines all over Europe. However, Victor Gyökeres is an exception! And we will talk about the phenomenon of this Viking and which world football giants will sign the forward in the summer!

By SoccerSat Team

Origins

Viktor Gyökeres is Swedish, so he started his professional career in his homeland with IF Brommapojkarna. During the 2016/17 season, the 18-year-old striker scored 15 goals and laid on 9 assists in 35 appearances for his club, attracting the attention of bigger teams.

Brighton were the most persistent and signed Victor for €1 million in the summer of 2017. For minnows IF Brommapojkarna, the transfer was the second-biggest in the club's history at the time, so the Swedes were delighted.

And the fact that Brighton noticed the striker means they really did see something in him. The Seagulls have long been renowned for their scouting department, which brings in top talent every season for relatively little money by English standards.

Caicedo, Mac Allister, White, Bissouma, Mitoma, Bounanotte, Adingra, Ferguson, Enciso all went on to shine in the Premier League with Brighton.

However, things did not go so well for Gyökeres in the south of England. He spent two seasons with Brighton's second team, sometimes coming off the bench in the first. Then came a couple of loan spells: German side St. Pauli and Championship side Swansea.

Gyökeres made 8 appearances for Brighton in all that time, scoring just 1 goal. And even that was the 4th goal in the Seagulls' crushing FA Cup defeat of Portsmouth.

The real salvation for the Swede was a loan move to Championship side Coventry, who he joined in January 2021. Although Gyökeres scored just 3 goals in half of the season, they saw the potential in him and decided to buy him for €1.2 million.

Then it began! Viktor began to repay his new club for their faith in him the very next season. During the 2021/22 campaign, he scored 18 goals and laid on 5 assists in 47 appearances in all competitions. Impressive progress compared to his early years in England.

But there was more to come. The following season, a small club from the city of Coventry, near Birmingham, with Gyökeres at the heart of their attack, broke into the Premier League.

Victor was unstoppable. He improved on his previous season's tally, scoring 22 goals and laying on 12 assists in 50 games. At the end of the season, Coventry made the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League, but lost out to another sensation, Luton Town, on penalties in the final.

Gyökeres finished as the Championship's second-highest scorer behind Chuba Akpom. After his club failed to win promotion to the Premier League, it became clear that they would not be able to keep the striker.

The likes of Everton and West Ham were keen to sign him, but Victor chose a rather unusual option to continue his career - he went to Portugal to play for Sporting, who broke their transfer record to lure him. Lisbon paid 21 million euros for the Swede. However, they clearly realised what a monster they were getting for their money.

This transfer has caused quite a stir for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is unusual for a player to move from the Championship to the Portuguese league. Secondly, Portuguese clubs rarely pay that kind of money for a player. And thirdly, a Scandinavian footballer is something of an exotic in Portugal.

When it comes to foreign players in the Primeira Liga, it's usually Latin Americans and Africans. And even when they do come from Europe, they're usually from neighbouring countries like Spain or France. But to have a Swede at Sporting was quite surprising.

Sporting wonders

When a player goes to Portugal, they typically aim to play for Benfica or Porto. Sporting was historically the third strongest team in the country, having won the Portuguese league only once in the first 20 years of this century. All other titles were shared between Benfica and Porto.

However, this changed when Ruben Amorim took over Sporting and won the league in his first full season. In the previous two seasons, Sporting won the Taça da Liga twice, which is equivalent to the Carabao Cup in England.

Amorim coached players such as Pedro Porro, João Palinha, Mateus Nunes, and Nuno Mendes, who all shone under his guidance. Sporting planned to fight for the title again, and So knew the kind of coach he was getting.

How much is gyokeres?

How much, given the Sporting CP star's incredible form, Arsenal and Chelsea will have to spend for Viktor Gyokeres this summer? According to reports, Sporting Lisbon has placed a £68.5 million ($84.5 million) price tag on Viktor Gyokeres, an Arsenal and Chelsea target.

What is Gyokeres' release clause?

According to reports, Arsenal may be able to sign Viktor Gyokeres for less than his €100 million (£86 million) release clause.