The Swedish striker joins the London membership after scoring 97 objectives for Sporting Lisbon over the previous two seasons.
Arsenal have signed Sweden ahead Viktor Gyokeres, bringing an finish to the Premier League membership’s years-long seek for a prolific goalscorer.
Gyokeres accomplished a transfer from Sporting Lisbon on Saturday price a reported 63 million kilos ($85m) and signed a five-year contract.
“Viktor is an distinctive expertise and has persistently demonstrated he has the qualities and profitable mentality required of a top-level centre-forward. His physicality, intelligence and work ethic make him an ideal match for our imaginative and prescient,” stated Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta.
The 27-year-old striker joins Arsenal after establishing himself after two excellent seasons in Portugal, during which he fired Lisbon to back-to-back league titles with 97 objectives, together with 54 objectives in 52 appearances throughout all competitions within the 2024-25 season, outscoring the likes of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah.
A top-class striker has lengthy been thought-about the lacking component for Arsenal, which got here runner-up in every of the final three Premier League seasons. The failure to deliver one in in the course of the January switch window badly undermined its makes an attempt to problem Liverpool for the title final time period.
“The consistency he has proven in his performances and availability have been excellent, and his purpose contributions converse for themselves,” stated supervisor Mikel Arteta. “He’s a fast and highly effective presence up entrance, with unimaginable goalscoring numbers at membership and worldwide ranges.”
Gyokeres returns to England after becoming a member of Brighton as a youth participant and later rising at second-tier Coventry, the place his 22 objectives helped the crew attain the playoff remaining in 2023.
His file of 40 objectives in 97 video games for Coventry caught the eye of Lisbon and led to a 20.5 million kilos ($25m) transfer to the Portuguese membership.
His explosive type over the previous two seasons has seen frequent hypothesis a couple of transfer to certainly one of European soccer’s giants, together with Manchester United. However Arsenal has received the race for his signature, and the switch represents a exceptional rise for a participant who was first developed at Brommapojkarna, a Swedish membership with a popularity for guiding the careers of among the nation’s greatest rising abilities.
“He was a late developer as a result of he was not the perfect striker or the perfect participant in Brommapojkarna at age 16, 17, 18, 19,” Dalibor Savic, his former youth coach on the Swedish membership, instructed The Related Press in November. “If he goals at one thing, he’ll obtain it.”
Gyokeres must show he could make the step as much as the Premier League after failing to interrupt by means of at Brighton, a membership identified for unearthing gamers like Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister in recent times. He solely made eight appearances for the membership and was loaned to St Pauli in Germany and Swansea earlier than his everlasting transfer to Coventry.
His performances for Sweden and within the Champions League counsel he’ll have the ability to proceed that type at Arsenal.
He was the main scorer within the Nations League, with 9 objectives, outscoring Cristiano Ronaldo and Haaland, and hit six in eight appearances within the Champions League for Lisbon final season.
