One of the hottest strikers in world football is reportedly a target for Premier League giants Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle United, and when you consider the numbers he is stumping up this season the level of interest should come as no surprise.
What do Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Lautaro Martinez and Mo Salah all have in common?
Well, they are all being outscored by a man who, HITC Football understands, was watched by Newcastle United’s scouts in January and is likely to be one of the hottest properties on the market by the time the summer rolls around.
With a 34-minute hat-trick during Sporting Lisbon’s 6-1 blistering of Boavista on Sunday, Viktor Gyokeres took a giant stride towards the 40-goal mark during a stunning debut season in Portuguese football. So far, he has 36 in 39 games.
Arsenal and Newcastle like Viktor Gyokeres
No wonder Jose Miguel Machado, the Portuguese journalist speaking to Swedish publication Fotbollskanalen, uses the word ‘phenomenon’ to describe a forward who, after spells at Brighton, Swansea and Coventry City, is showing exactly why former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray likened him to a certain Manchester City marksman during his time in England’s second tier.
Coventry sold Gyokeres to Sporting for a club-record fee of £20 million last summer. Should Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea or AC Milan come calling 12 months on, it would take a bid of around four-times that to get Sporting around a table.
Head coach Ruben Amorim insists that offers below his £85 million release clause will not be considered.
“I don’t think much about the future. I want to win the league and the cup with Sporting. That’s what I put all my energy into in the club team,” Gyokeres tells Fotbollskanalen. “But it’s fun to get appreciation.
“It’s a sign that I’ve performed well. But it’s not something I take too seriously, since it’s just speculation. But, of course, it’s fun.
“We’ll see this summer. It’s not something I know about, what will happen. I enjoy Sporting extremely well and feel no stress about the summer coming quickly. (My 100 million euro clause) is a lot of money. But it’s not something that affects me.”
Outscoring Erling Haaland
Fortunately for a Sporting side sitting one point clear of Lisbon rivals Benfica at the top of the table, Gyokeres does not sound like a man distracted by all the speculation surrounding his future. Three goals in the space of just 34 minutes is not usually a sign of a player who’s head has been turned.
HITC, meanwhile, has heard that there is interest at Arsenal in Brentford’s Ivan Toney and Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic too.
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