After a year of extremely dominant performances in the Portuguese league, Viktor Gyökeres has currently gone one better in the 2024/25 season: with 14 goals in his first 10 official games for Sporting and Sweden, he is even the top goalscorer in the 2024 calendar year with 40 goals , even before a certain Erling Haaland.
But most experts outside the Portuguese league now know that Viktor Gyökeres can score goals. Anyone who followed this in the slightest last season was able to admire an impressive young Swede who, after moving from Coventry City, impressed with 43 goals and 14 assists in 50 games and practically single-handedly shot Sporting to the championship.
Breakthrough and superlatives in Portugal
A record that few would have thought he would improve on. After having to recover from knee surgery in the summer, it currently looks like the man is far from finished with mask cheering.
Die Stats von Root Flashscore
In addition to the 14 goals, there are also 5 assists in the current season. If you only look at the Portuguese league, he has scored 10 goals in 6 games. In other words: of the 18 teams in the league, only Sporting (22), FC Porto and Benfica (12 each) have scored more goals than the 26-year-old Swede.
It is also the best start by a Sporting striker in the 21st century, and a full 35 years since a player scored that many goals in his first 6 games in the Portuguese league. In the 1989/90 season this was Mats Magnusson, also Swedish but in the Benfica jersey, who contributed 11 goals in his first 6 games.
Gyökeres and the Bane mask: Is the Swede conquering the world?
If you look at the calendar year 2024 – in which there are still three full months of football to be played – no one has actually scored more goals than Viktor Gyökeres. 40 goals in 40 games: he leaves the world elite around Erling Haaland (36 in 34 games), Harry Kane (35 in 40 games), Kylian Mbappe (31 in 45 games), Robert Lewandowski (25 in 43 games) and Cristiano Ronaldo (29 in 35 games) all behind them.
Children in Aspudden-Tellus imitate Gyökeres’ celebrationBruno Henriques/Flashscore
It was precisely Ronaldo who created the most famous and popular goal celebration in football history with his iconic “Siiiuuu”. And Gyökeres also has a lot of potential in this category: with his hands clasped together, he hides his face every time he hits. Only his eyes are visible.
For a year, fans and experts puzzled: What did the cheers mean? In fact, it’s a tribute to Bane by Vitkor Gyökeres. The DC Comics villain was created to make life difficult for Batman. Thanks to his abilities, he was the only one who managed to defeat the famous superhero. Just like Bane, Gyökeres uses his strength and speed to make life difficult for opposing defenders in Portugal. And soon possibly beyond that?
“Nobody was interested in me until I put the mask on“, Bane once explained. Gyökeres quoted the words of his favorite character a few weeks ago in one of his Instagram posts. One thing is certain: since the Swede put on his mask, he has been an integral part of the world’s newspapers.
