Arsenal in superior talks to signal Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP
Arsenal are in superior talks with Sporting CP over a deal to signal Viktor Gyokeres.
A transfer for the 27-year-old striker just isn’t finished as discussions proceed over the switch charge — however the scenario is progressing in direction of a conclusion.
Private phrases are in place on a proposed five-year contract, the Sweden worldwide having prioritised a swap to Arsenal for a while.
Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta is pushing to have the scenario delivered to a swift conclusion forward of his squad’s return to pre-season coaching.
Gyokeres is one in all Europe’s most in-demand gamers after scoring 54 objectives in 52 video games in 2024-25 as Sporting gained the Portuguese league and cup double.
The Athletic reported on March 30 that Arsenal have been creating a robust curiosity in Gyokeres, who had been admired for a while by their newly-appointed sporting director Andrea Berta.
Final month, Sporting president Frederico Varandas insisted the membership had but to obtain any affords for the striker and mentioned his aspect is not going to succumb to “blackmail and insults” as hypothesis over the way forward for the Sweden worldwide continues.
Since becoming a member of Sporting from Coventry Metropolis in 2023, Gyokeres has scored 97 objectives in 102 matches. Gyokeres moved to English soccer in 2017-18 when becoming a member of Brighton & Hove Albion, however made simply eight appearances for the south-coast membership and scored one objective.
After mortgage spells at St. Pauli and Swansea Metropolis, he then joined Coventry, initially on mortgage, for whom he scored 43 objectives throughout two and a half seasons earlier than his transfer to Portugal.
RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko has additionally been tracked by Arsenal for a while as they search so as to add a ahead to Mikel Arteta’s squad. Sesko, 22, signed a brand new contract with Leipzig final summer season however the Bundesliga membership’s failure to achieve the Champions League has elevated the potential of a summer season sale.
That new contract eliminated a €65m launch clause however was signed with a mutual understanding that when the appropriate venture arrived, Sesko can be allowed to depart for a good value.
Arsenal have been with out a recognised No 9 for the majority of the second half of the 2024-25 season after critical accidents to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus in January and February respectively. Midfielder Mikel Merino typically deputised as a striker of their absence.
Arsenal have accomplished the signing of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea and Spain worldwide midfielder Martin Zubimendi from Actual Sociedad.
‘Gyokeres affords rather more than objectives’
Evaluation by knowledge author Thom Harris
There’s fairly an apparent attraction to Gyokeres when flicking by the numbers; his 68 league objectives since becoming a member of Sporting two summers in the past is properly over double that of every other participant in Portugal all through that point, a brutal finisher, in a position to generate freakish energy on both aspect.
However there’s extra to the Swede than simply lasered photographs and penalty-box poaching — Gyokeres is a prodigious runner, direct, explosive, and with the bodily capability to repeat these actions at excessive depth. As we will see from his SkillCorner run profile beneath — evaluating his off-ball work to strikers throughout Europe’s high seven leagues — he’s typically concentrating on the house in-behind, or pulling extensive to run the channels, blissful to take a defender out extensive earlier than powering inside and getting his shot away.
The Premier League, after all, is a special proposition, and whereas Gyokeres clearly has the bodily capabilities to battle it out with the strongest of centre-backs, he will not be afforded fairly as a lot house to assault for a aspect equivalent to Arsenal, typically pass-heavy and affected person of their build-up. He additionally isn’t prolific within the air, with out a single headed objective in league soccer final season.
However the Swede is a handful, a assured goalscorer, a relentless runner, and a ruthless No.9 who can flip half-chances into objectives. If Premier League groups thought that they had discovered Arteta’s Arsenal, this signing provides a brand new dimension.
(High photograph: Linnea Rheborg/Getty Pictures)