This Striker is Football's Biggest Unsung Hero. The Story of Viktor Gyökeres
In this issue of Football Latest, we talk about a Striker who has over 50 goal contributions this season for his club.
The Story of Viktor Gyökeres - From Brighton Reject to Most Wanted Striker in Europe
Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe. These are the players that football fans talk about every day, and for good reason. They win trebles and World Cups, they dominate the most competitive leagues in the world. If I told you that one of these brilliant attackers had the most goal contributions in the world right now, you would probably believe me, but actually, another name dominates these statistics. Not a player who plays for an amateur side in Turkey or Greece. Not a footballing name known by millions. The player that I am talking about is actually Viktor Gyökeres, a Swedish striker who plays for Sporting in Portugal. He currently boasts 50 goal contributions in all competitions this season, higher than any other player in the world. Today, we will take a look into his story so far as a footballer and how he became the terrifying striker that he is today.
Gyökeres started his professional career when he was promoted from the youth academy of Swedish club IF Brommapojkarna to their first team, and he made an instant and consistent impact. Over the 2 years that he stayed at the club, he scored 25 goals and 9 assists. Although these stats alone over 2 years wouldn’t suggest that a player was destined to go right to the top, it was his mentality and work ethic that his coaches pointed out set him apart from others. However, in 2017, Gyökeres decided that it was time to part ways with his first ever professional club.
After impressing at Brommapojkarna for 2 years, Gyökeres made a 1 million pound move to Brighton, with a hope to show his ability in the biggest footballing stage of all, the Premier League. However at Brighton, things did not go to plan for Gyökeres. He did not receive any starts for Brighton in the league, with his only chances of game time coming in the Carabao and FA Cups. Eventually, he was loaned out to FC St. Pauli in the German second division, and during this time, he put in some solid performances for the club, achieving 7 goals and 4 assists during his season-long spell. He was then loaned unsuccessfully to Swansea, before being recalled by Brighton and then sent on one more loan to Coventry in 2021. This loan, however, went brilliantly for Gyökeres as he was eventually signed by Coventry permanently because of his great contributions to the team during the season. In his time at Coventry from 2021 to 2023, he scored 43 goals and got 17 assists, becoming an integral member of their squad. Coventry improved so much thanks to Gyökeres that they unexpectedly managed to fight for promotion, making it to the Championship play-offs final, where Gyökeres would assist the Coventry equaliser. Although they went on and lost this game on penalties to Luton Town, Gyökeres’ time at Coventry put him back in the spotlight. Gyökeres' remarkable contributions at Coventry not only elevated the team's performance but also caught the attention of larger clubs. This led to the most pivotal moment of his entire career. Sporting negotiated a 24 million euro deal with Coventry to sign Gyökeres.
Gyökeres didn’t take long to start scoring for the club, as he scored 2 goals in 2 minutes on his debut for Sporting in the league, followed by a goal in his Europa League debut against SK Sturm Graz. Since then, he has not stopped scoring for Sporting, and thanks to his 50 goal contributions already this season, they now lead Liga Portugal and are favourites to win the Portuguese Cup. Arsenal and Chelsea are both monitoring Gyökeres and with his performances this season, they could be willing to pay the £100 million release clause in his contract.
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