Is Viktor Gyokeres worth €100m? Why Arsenal and Chelsea are scrambling to sign ex-Coventry striker from Sporting CP

Coventry City to Sporting CP is not a well-trodden path for footballers, but after the success of Viktor Gyokeres this campaign, a few more of the Sky Blues squad might be pushing their agents for a similar move in the summer.

At the end of last season, the Swede broke with conventional wisdom by foregoing Premier League riches to try his luck in Portugal. However, if reports are to be believed, it won’t be long until Gyokeres does return to England.

This time, he won’t be in the second tier – he has scored far too many goals at Sporting for that to be the case. Instead, Arsenal or Chelsea beckons, with the London giants both very interested in securing his services this summer.

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    Where it all began

    Born in the Stockholm on June 4, 1998, Gyokeres began his footballing journey at minnows IFK Aspudden-Tellus. After impressing there, he was spotted by IF Brommapojkarna – who proudly boast of being Europe’s largest football club in terms of all-age participants.

    He progressed swiftly through the ranks, making his senior debut aged 18 against Ostersunds, who were being managed by Graham Potter at the time. Gyokeres remained in the first team’s thinking by scoring bucket loads of goals for the Under-19s and Under-21s, and by the time the 2015-16 season rolled around, he had properly broken into the senior ranks.

    The following year was his true breakout campaign, though, with Gyokeres’ displays attracting interest from Brighton. After the deal had been announced, he bid farewell to the Swedish side in the perfect way, netting a hat-trick on the final day as they lifted the second-tier title.

    After signing for Brighton, Gyokeres admitted that he expected to begin life in the U23s. “The club has said that I’m going to work with the reserve team when I get into it all. They probably look at me as an initial U23 player, but this is most up to me. However, I do not feel stressed. You should focus on where you are and nowhere else,” he mused in an interview with STV Sport.

    Gyokeres’ prediction was correct too, even if he did star at the 2017 European U19 Championship just before arriving at Brighton. During his four years on the south coast, he mustered just eight appearances, all of which came in cup competitions. His development was instead supplemented by loans to St Pauli, Swansea and Coventry, and during this latter spell, he did enough to convince the Sky Blues to take a chance and sign him permanently.

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  The big break

  It’s hard to overstate how important joining Coventry was for Gyokeres. After several years of stagnation in Sussex, he finally had a home where he was considered the main man – and he rose to the challenge.

  “Viktor is a talented striker with good power, pace and movement, and great potential. He showed a terrific attitude when he was with us on loan last season and made a real impression,” manager Mark Robins said after his arrival was confirmed, and it did not take long for the Swede to start repaying the faith placed in him.

  During his first full season at Coventry he registered a goal return of nine in his first 11 Championship games and, after a slight drop off, ended the campaign with 18 strikes in all competitions. He scooped two prizes at the club’s end-of-season awards too.

  And things got even better the following year. During the 2022-23 campaign, he stepped up his scoring rate and his performances were a huge reason why Coventry secured an unlikely top-six finish. Gyokeres’ magic continued in the play-offs too, as in the semi-finals against Middlesbrough, he provided the assist for Gustavo Hamer’s goal that booked his side a Wembley date with fellow upstarts Luton Town.

  The pair would combine again in the final, with Gyokeres also converting from the penalty spot in the shootout. It was in vain, unfortunately, with Luton earning their place in the Premier League, but by this pointm Coventry’s star striker had proved that he was ready to take the next step – even if the rest of his team was not.

  “Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising every time we fall,” he reflected after that Wembley heartbreak.

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  How it’s going

  Following his exploits for Coventry, there were a host of top clubs after Gyokeres, and it soon became clear that the Sky Blues wouldn’t be able to keep hold of their star man. Wolves and Everton were among his Premier League suitors, but Gyokeres would instead opt to return to the continent, joining Sporting for an initial €20m (£17.1m/$21.5m).

  His agent, Hasan Cetinkaya, recently told Record, of that transfer saga: “There were eight Premier League clubs who made concrete proposals to Coventry and me, which guaranteed more money, more commissions and a higher transfer value than Sporting… Ruben Amorim was, and is, the key to Viktor taking this step towards Sporting.”

  The fee was a club record and there was pressure on him to perform from the off. Gyokeres has had no issue meeting these lofty expectations, though. At the time of writing, the Sweden international has scored a quite remarkable 36 goals in all competitions, helping put his side in pole position to lift the Liga Portugal title for the first time since 2021.

  With his current release clause standing at a whopping €100m (£86.5m/$107.5m), some of the Premier League clubs who were sniffing around in the summer will be tearing their hair out for not pushing harder for his services. But just what it is that makes Gyokeres so special?

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  Biggest strengths

  Perhaps what stands out most when watching Gyokeres is his unique physical profile. At first glance, the 6’1 striker appears a little gangly. But once the ball comes near him, he proves that looks can be deceiving by showcasing an incredible turn of pace and devilish agility. Saying that, his frame and jumping ability also means he’s more than capable of operating as a target man, with Coventry benefitting from this a great deal during his time in the Midlands.

  Technically speaking, there’s a lot to get enthused about too. As his incredible goal record suggests, he is a truly natural finisher. For Sporting, he has consistently received high-quality crosses from out wide and pinpoint through balls, rewarding his team-mates by maintaining a high conversion rate.

  In the league this season, he has, on average, taken less than five shots to score. He’s also overperforming his expected goals by nearly seven, further proving how good his finishing has been lately, while his 100 percent success rate from the penalty spot has helped to bolster his tally further.

  Gyokeres isn’t just an attacking focal point and killer in front of goal, though; he’s also proved to be a potent creative force this season. While Sporting’s 3-4-2-1 formation necessitates him staying centrally, he likes to pull into the channels and half-spaces whenever possible to show off his excellent passing. His remarkable tally of 15 assists means he’s averaging over a goal contribution every game for his side this season.

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  Room for improvement

  It’s hard to pick weaknesses in Gyokeres game, with the Swede seemingly excelling at most things required of a modern-day No.9. However, the biggest question mark hanging over him is one that plagues any striker making a significant step up, as he looks set to this summer.

  Namely, can he replicate these performances when the pressure is increased, the opposition better and the stakes are higher? There is at least some evidence to suggest that Gyokeres thrives when the lights are shining that little bit brighter.

  As well as performing well in all three of Coventry’s play-off games last season, he netted in both legs of Sporting’s Europa League play-off round games against Young Boys, as well as against Benfica in the Taca de Portugal semi-finals and Porto in a famous league victory back in December.

  Then again, he did draw blanks in each game as Sporting crashed out of Europe at the hands of Atalanta, and only has six goals in 20 appearances for Sweden. It’s also fair to say that moving to the Premier League would lumber Gyokeres with a level of expectation he’s never experienced in his career.

  Thus, while it’s true that Gyokeres has earnt a big-money move at the end of the season, any club signing him would be taking a bit of a risk as he is an unproven quantity.

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  The next… Erling Haaland?

  After scoring one and setting up another in Coventry’s Championship victory over Sunderland back in February 2023, Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray made a bold Gyokeres comparison. “He looks a yard more powerful and a yard quicker than everyone else, he’s a really confident boy,” Mowbray began. “I don’t want to say he should test himself in the Premier League, but who is like him in the Premier League at the moment? Who is too fast, too strong and too big? You would suggest Haaland is like that and Gyokeres in this league looks a yard faster and stronger than the players he plays against in the Championship.”

  Placing Gyokeres alongside the best striker in the world might have seemed a little over the top, but Mowbray’s been in football for some time. Now, his comments don’t look daft at all.

  It’s easy to see where he got the inspiration for the comparison too. Physically, the pair are rather similar; two well-built centre-forwards who are extremely pacey. And then there’s the fox-like instincts in the box, with Gyokeres actually outscoring Haaland this season.

  If whoever ends up signing the Swede this summer gets anywhere near the same level of output as his Scandinavian counterpart has managed since moving to England, they’ll be very satisfied indeed.