5 facts you need to know about Viktor Gyokeres

Viktor Gyokeres has been the name echoing in north London since the start of the summer window. The Swedish striker’s arrival has brought immense joy to the Emirates faithful.

Arsenal have splashed the big bucks for Gyokeres, with the striker costing €63.5 million with an additional €10 million in potential performance-related add-ons. Gyokeres has signed a 5-year contract with the North London-based team.

Viktor has previously performed in English football with stints at teams like Swansea City, Coventry City and Brighton and Hove Albion.

The 27-year-old striker earned himself a reputation at Sporting CP in the Portuguese league, where he found the back of the net on 97 occasions in 102 appearances. Here are 5 insane facts that you must know about Viktor Gyokeres –

Emirates Stadium debut with Arsenal

Viktor has already played at the Emirates Stadium; however, it was not as an Arsenal player.

The forward started for Brighton and Hove Albion’s U-23 side, with the game resulting in a 1-1 draw. The summer arrival will be thrilled to walk out of the tunnel in an Arsenal shirt in the north London stadium.

Delivers the goods on his debut

The Swedish striker is known to deliver top-notch performances on his debut. During his first match with Sporting CP in the Liga NOS, Gyokeres netted twice and helped his team secure a 3-2 victory over Vizela.

In his European debut in the UEFA Europa League, Viktor was once again on the scoresheet in a 2-1 victory over Strum Graz.

Additionally, he repeated the feat during his Portuguese cup debut against Farense, where he displayed poacher’s instincts and found the back of the net on three occasions.

Family history in the game

Viktor Gyokeres is not the first professional footballer from his family. Instead, he is following the footsteps of his father, Stefan Gyokeres.

His father played for IFK Ostersund and Stugun in the 1980s and 1990s.

The famous celebration

The Swedish attacker has made himself synonymous with the iconic mash celebration. During a recent interview at his new club, Gyokeres revealed insights about his distinct manner of celebrating a goal. He was quoted as saying –

“Before I got it, my friends were always saying to me to find my own celebration, because they were very tired of me doing all kinds of stuff when I was celebrating 

I think it was during the World Cup break in 2022, so I had some time off. We went on vacation together, me and my friends. When we were going, we were talking about that and during that time, we just came up with it after a while. 

We thought it looked good, and I started doing it straight away. It felt even better on the pitch.”

Hungarian past

Gyokeres had the option of representing Hungary or Sweden. The striker was eligible to play for Hungary through his paternal grandfather, who had opted to emigrate to Sweden in the late 1950s.

However, Gyokeres went on to make his Sweden debut in 2019 after having already represented them at youth levels.

Gooners will hoping the striker hits the ground running in North London and enables the team to make a major title challenge as well as repeating their run in the Champions League from last season.