The agent of Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres will reportedly be in attendance at one of this week’s Champions League quarter-finals amid increased speculation over his client’s future.
The 26-year-old’s side will not be present in the last eight of the competition, having suffered a 3-0 aggregate defeat to last season’s beaten finalists Borussia Dortmund in the knockout round playoffs.
However, Gyokeres still managed an eye-catching six goals in the league phase of Europe’s elite competition, including a tremendous treble in Sporting’s 4-1 home win over Manchester City in November.
Those six strikes in Europe have contributed to an astounding 43 in all competitions for the former Coventry City man this season, while he has also laid on 11 assists in 43 matches.
Gyokeres’s remarkable tallies have unsurprisingly made him one of the hottest attacking properties on the market, and a plethora of European clubs are said to have registered their interest in a deal.
The strongest interest appears to be coming from Arsenal and Manchester United, but Liverpool, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich have also been mentioned as possible suitors.
Gyokeres agent ‘to attend Arsenal vs. Real Madrid’
© Imago
Now, a report from FootballTransfers – via the Evening Standard – claims that Gyokeres’s representative will be at the Emirates to watch admirers Arsenal take on Real Madrid on Tuesday evening.
Last week, it was claimed that the Gunners had developed a ‘growing interest’ in the 26-year-old, who is understood to be a personal favourite of new sporting director Andrea Berta.
Berta was supposedly determined to sign Gyokeres for Atletico Madrid while he worked at the Wanda Metropolitano, and he could now prove to be a cheaper alternative to Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak.
Newcastle are not expected to let Isak depart for anything below £120m, although Sporting may be willing to do business for Gyokeres between the £55m and £70m mark in the upcoming window.
The Swede’s contract – which runs until 2028 – is said to possess a release clause of £85m, but Sporting are prepared to accept reasonable offers below that amount, as they will still make a healthy profit on the £20.6m they paid Coventry for the striker in 2023.
Gyokeres has produced a staggering 86 goals and 26 assists in 93 matches for Sporting in all competitions, while he netted 41 in 121 Championship appearances during his Coventry and Swansea City days.
Why Mikel Arteta might “need convincing” over Gyokeres deal
[embedded content]
Gyokeres’s numbers in Portugal might speak for themselves, but until Berta touched down in North London, Arsenal did not appear to have the Swede at the top of their wanted list.
Instead, the Gunners pursued RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko for most of last summer, before making Isak their number one pick this time around and also failing with a January bid for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
As a result, Arsenal expert Charles Watts has told Sports Mole that Berta would need to ‘convince’ Mikel Arteta that the 26-year-old is the right striker to sign this summer.
