No one cared who I was until I put on the mask.

On July 13th, 2023 Sporting announced they'd broken their transfer record paying €20m to Coventry City for the Swedish forward Viktor Gyökeres on a five year deal. The fee potentially rising to €24m in total if additional objectives were met by the player during his time with the lions. He arrived in Lisboa having finished the Sky Blues top scorer with 21 goals in a season where their promotion hopes were finally dashed at Wembley with a defeat in the play off finals on penalties to Luton Town. How things could have been so very different for Sporting and the Swede had that game finished the other way. It's hard to envisage that with Premier League football waiting in August and Coventry's finances boosted by Premier League money that Gyökeres would have ever become a lion. 

It goes without saying that writing with the benefit of hindsight is so much easier than trying to have the foresight into how a new signing will perform. Anything can happen in football, for example a player could be injured within five minutes of his debut and miss the entire season. Fees paid are no guarantees of success. Just because a player is your most expensive signing in the club's history doesn't guarantee they'll be a success. What to make of Gyökeres signing therefore I wasn't entirely sure. I'd watched the montage of every goal our new forward had scored for Coventry City and I'd seen his involvement in the pre-season games. I'd say I was reasonably optimistic that he'd do alright with us. This is what I wrote prior to the opening game with Vizela;

Gyökeres looks like he's going to cause a lot of problems for an awful lot of defenders. It'll be interesting to see how many players pick up bookings for fouls on the young Swede. There's a touch of Bas Dost about him with his finishing. He knows where to be at the right time and Paulinho is going to find it hard to shift him out of the starting XI. Without a ball being kicked in the league I'll go on the record as saying I'll be incredibly disappointed if he doesn't end up with between 20-25 goals in the league. 

It's really hard to gauge a player when you've not seen them playing week in week out though listening to some they'd jave you believe it's not an issue at all. Pre season is never the most accurate indicator either. I'd been impressed with his positional play when he was scoring for Coventry hence why I'd compared him to Bas Dost, Sporting's king of the first touch finishes. Being in the right place at the right time is half the battle. Was I expecting him to lead Sporting to a league title win when he signed? Hand on heart I don't think the thought even crossed my mind once during that first summer. 

It would be so easy for every Sporting fan to claim that they knew that Gyökeres was about to become the star of Portuguese football for the next two seasons when he scored in the 13th and 14th minutes of his debut at home to Vizela. My overriding memory of the game however isn't of his two goals, it's of the 99th minute Paulinho winner to finish the game 3-2 after throwing away a 2 goal lead. Having thought here we go again, the same old Sporting, that comeback at least left me feeling slightly optimistic that perhaps this side, despite their flaws, at least had something resembling a fighting spirit about them. A side that doesn't know they're beaten is a rare phenomenon in football and certainly not something I'd seen through various iterations of the sides from Marco Silva's time onwards to that present point in time. Aside from the actual result, a brace was a good start for the Swede though. I certainly felt more confident about what I'd written that he'd hit the 20-25 goal mark over the course of the campaign.

He drew a blank against Casa Pia, Famalicão and Braga however would find the net in his next two games scoring against Moreirense and then his first Europa League goal against Sturm Graz. 

It would seem incredible now to think that you'd have Viktor in your matchday squad and not play him at any stage in a game but that was exactly the case as he sat on the sidelines watching on as Sporting took on Rio Ave in the fifth league game of the season. It would however be the only league game he didn't feature in for the entire league campaign, one in which he would only be able to finish by virtue of being held together by medical tape. Discounting the Rio Ave game on the basis he didn't play, for the player himself, he would score in the five consecutive games he plays a part in. A brace against Farense is followed by his second Europa League goal against Atalanta and a goal against Arouca. His tally now 8 goals in 9 games in all competitions. 

Another night off against lowly Olivais presumably to allow him rest for the upcoming game against Raków in the Europa League. Gyökeres ends up booking himself more rest as he's dismissed just 8 minutes into the game which will see him banned for the next Europa game which ironically falls against the same opponent. He drew a blank against Boavista before scoring his first hat trick as a Lion in a 4-2 win over Farense in the Taça da Liga. Between then and the end of the calendar year he takes his goal tally to 18 in all competitions with a brace against Gil Vicente and goals against each of the following clubs; Benfica, Dumiense, Sturm Graz, Porto and Portimonense. More blanks however against Estrela, Atalanta, Vitória and Tondela. 

In the opening round of 17 fixtures and in the various cup competitions domestically and on European level Gyökeres has certainly demonstrated there was a player in there but you'd still not have nailed your colours to the mast that he was the real deal. Simon Banza at Braga was at that stage firing on all cylinders and you couldn't say for certain which one of the two was the more likely to finish as the league's top goal scorer. 

Sporting start the new year with another two Europa League games ahead of them, still in both the Taça's and murmurings that Sporting might just be in with a chance of challenging for the title in a further five months' time. 

Gyökeres draws a blank in the first game of 2024 against Estoril. Back to scoring ways with a brace against Tondela in the Taça de Portugal. Blank against Chaves, another brace against Vizela to make it four in total against the side that would be relegated come the end of the season. Blank at Braga and then things really click for the Swede. Back to back braces against Casa Pia and Uniao, goals against Braga and Young Boys. Blank against Moreirense, then a run of another four games with a goal in each. Another goal against Young Boys and Sporting are into the knockout rounds of the EuropaLeague, a goal against Rio Ave in league, a winning goal against the clubs biggest rivals Benfica in the Taça de Portugal and another in the league against Farense. 

A goal against Arouca is sandwiched by two blanks against Atalanta. He makes up for the disappointment of being knocked out of Europe with his second hat trick, this time coming against Boavista. 

Going into the end of March and into the start of April the wear and tear was really starting to show on his left knee and Gyökeres would end the season on the operating table undergoing surgery. For now he really is playing through the pain as Sporting find themselves in with a real chance of becoming league champions for the second time in four seasons. 

Blanks against Estrela, twice against Benfica in both the league and Taça de Portugal, Gil Vicente and Famalicão. 

A brace against Vitória was followed up by arguably his most important goals for the club to date. Sunday April 28th at the Estádio Do Dragão and Porto are looking to ruin Sporting's title ambitions. Gyökeres isn't even fit enough to start the game and Ruben Amorim has gotten his game plan horribly wrong and Sporting go in at half time tails between their legs 2-0 down. Bragança swapped out for Gyökeres, 45 minutes to make a difference. He certainly leaves it late to do so, but boy does he do exactly that with goals in the 87th and 88th minute. Sergio Conceição’s men are left on their knees. Pepe would even retire at rhe end of the season. Gyökeres has written his name into lion's folklore. Three league games to go to become Champions of Portugal again. The confirmation didn't come on the pitch for Sporting but instead on Sunday May 5th when Famalicão beat Benfica 2-0 to make Sporting being crowned league title winmers a reality. Gyökeres now has his first career league title winners medal. €20m now looked very much a bargain even if the Swede finishes the season crawling on his hands and knees playing through the pain barrier. 

The goal scoring wasn't finished though, goal against Portimonense, they were also relegated alongside Vizela, blank against Estoril in a game he got kicked around the park. His league campaign signed off with another brace against Chaves to make it 29 goals in his 33 appearances as they would now also face life for the next season in Liga 2. All three clubs relegated are no doubt happy to not have to face the Swede the following season. 

Gyökeres is the league's top scorer (Bola da Prata), a league title winner, voted player of the season in the league (LPFP Primeira Liga player of the year) and for the lions. Despite disappointment in Europe with a meek club display against Atalanta and the bizarre sending off against Raków, overall it's a success for Gyökeres scoring 5 times in his first European campaign. 3 goals in two Taça da Liga games, just one more match to come as Sporting faced off against Porto in Jamor in the final of the Taça de Portugal. Sadly it really was one game too far as the lions went down 2-1 having been reduced to ten men when St Juste was given his marching orders and hampered by having to start youth goalkeeper Diogo Pinto following a long term injury to the clubs number one Adán and his backup Franco Israel. However overall despite a runner's up medal, that specific competition did bring another six goals in six games for Gyökeres. 

The stand out goals for me in his debut season are the opener in the derby in da Luz in which he sends the ball flying past Trubin in the Benfica goal like a bird being chased by a cat.

https://youtu.be/P5aVJEm9Yr0?si=r9doPgDWoOpxB6YE

Then the second goal, again in a derby at the José Alvalade in the Taça de Portugal where he leaves Otamendi with twisted blood before racing into the area to slot home.

https://youtu.be/2S74gQdS6IQ?si=_wD2kEIxYk3HTXM0

In the space of a year Gyökeres had managed to make himself one of the most talked about forwards in European and World football in what was an incredible debut season. Sporting's management had confirmed during the January transfer window that any club interested in his services would have to pay the €100 million termination clause and reiterated the same stance throughout the summer of 2024 as the Swede underwent first the surgeon's knife on his knee and then through his rehabilitation process to try and get back for the start of the next season. By now it's safe to say that Sportinguista's are fully in love with the talismanic Swede after scoring a massive 43 goals in all competitions. If the goals weren't enough, he also recorded 10 assists during the league campaign. Anything coming close to that this forthcoming season would be phenomenal. 

Finally as promised having won the league title he answered the question he'd been asked virtually every time he scored, namely the meaning behind his goal celebration. The answer is simply that it was inspired by the quote from the Bane character in the Batman franchise; No one cared who I was until I put on the mask. Seems obvious if you're a comic book geek. Meant absolutely nothing to me in fairness. Still having said he'd only tell if we'd won the league may I say how delighted I was to discover the answer or maybe I mean to be league title winners again. 

With Sportings players recalled to pre-season training the Swede was busy behind the scenes completing his rehabilitation following his surgery and in real danger of missing the start of the campaign having not even started ball work on the pitch alongside his teammates as Sporting looked to take on Union St.Gilloise, Sevilla and Athletic Club in the scheduled friendlies. 

He misses the first two pre-season games but a hat trick in a behind closed doors friendly convinces the then coach Ruben Amorim to put him back into the starting XI for the visit of Athletic Club. He manages 58 minutes before being withdrawn and Sportinguista's breathe a sigh of relief that most likely he won't miss the opening of the season even if not yet fully match fit. 

The 2024/25 season got underway where the last campaign had finished with a game against Porto, this time in the Supertaça. Gyökeres started and provided 2 assists as Sporting raced to a 3-0 lead inside 24 minutes. You'd have forgiven Sporting fans for thinking their season was about to be a walk in the park with the league champions seemingly able to turn it on at will on the pitch and put one of their main rivals to the sword. Somehow, in a somewhat typical Sporting fashion, they contrived to lose the game 4-3 but importantly for them and for Viktor he had his first 90 minutes of football under his belt. 

Perhaps with the disappointment of defeats in two straight finals and having been kept off the pitch for the majority of the summer during his rehabilitation he took his anger out on the opposition. He scores in each of the opening 7 games in all competitions. A goal in the opening league fixture against Rio Ave followed by a brace in a 6-1 thumping of newly promoted Nacional - Welcome to the Primeira Liga gentleman. His third hat trick for Sporting comes against Farense to make it six goals in 3 games. A single goal in each of the wins against Porto, Arouca and Lille, which became his first ever Champions League goal. The hot streak comes to an end with a brace against AVS. I cannot be the only Sportinguista watching on from behind closed fingers like a child watching a Doctor Who every time he goes down clutching any part of his leg. He's clearly not 100% despite his rich vein of goalscoring form. 

Blanks against Estoril and PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League are followed by another goal against Casa Pia. He only plays 35 minutes from the substitutes bench against Portimonense in the Taça de Portugal. Amorim already having to consider game management for the Swede following surgery, a lack of a full pre season and additional games in the new Champions League format. 

The rest certainly doesn't do him any harm, in fact it only serves to fuel his hunger as he goes on another scoring run of five games. His second champions league goal against Sturm Graz, a league goal against Famalicão, a brace in the Taça da Liga against Nacional, FOUR against Estrela making it his fourth hat trick and first poker in Portuguese football. He makes it back to back hat tricks as Sporting beat the current Premier League champions Manchester City 4-1. That's his first Champions League hat trick and puts to bed any questions of whether he can cut it on the biggest stage of all. The Nacional game was also the first time we found out that Gyökeres could strike a free kick. Does seem somewhat daft in retrospect to have had to wait until October 29th, 2024 until someone gave him the opportunity. Never mind, one more string to his bow. 

On the field things seemingly couldn't go wrong for the lions who with the talismanic Swede leading the fight are pretty much everyone's favourites to retain the title and incredibly at that stage were sat second in the table in the new Champions League format. What could possibly go wrong? Well … Manchester United came knocking for the services of the mister Ruben Amorim and they, like Elvis, said it's now or never and the deal was agreed. Sporting rather comically made him work his notice period like any other employee and his last game as coach came away in Braga where the Swede was unable to send the man who put so much faith in him away with one final goal. Sporting did however manage to come from 2-0 down at half time to win 4-2. For those paying enough close attention, despite winning 17 of their opening 18 games in all competitions, drawing the other against PSV, things weren't always as comfortable on the field as the record suggests. The first half in Braga certainly evidence of that, they were fortunate to beat an off colour Manchester City who had they taken their early chances could have put the game out of sight. They were incredibly poor away to PSV in Holland and very fortunate to maintain their unbeaten record in all competitions. 

João Pereira was promoted from Sporting B with the theory being that having played the same 3-4-3 system, the transition from Liga 3 to the top flight would be a seamless one. He was handed an easy enough start with a Taça de Portugal game against lowly Amarante which Sporting won 6-0 and having come on as a second half substitute for the final 34 minutes Gyökeres added another to his season's tally… and then the wheels literally fell off. First the lions were mauled 5-1 in the Champions League by Arsenal in which Inácio scored the consolation goal and then Sporting drew a blank in a 1-0 loss at home to Santa Clara. Sporting suddenly appeared a shadow of their former selves. 

Back to scoring ways for Gyökeres with a goal against Moreirense, nothing against Club Bruges, a goal against Boavista then another against Santa Clara in the Taça de Portugal. Blanks against Gil Vicente and Benfica and João Pereira’s tenure as the new mister was over, just like that. This definitely wasn't the plan in the summer.

Sporting hired their third coach of the season taking Rui Borges from Vitória who ironically would provide his first opposition. This was the last game of the opening round of 17 league fixtures and his former charges clearly had something to prove as they put four past Sporting. Thankfully for the new manager he quickly discovered justhow good the Swede is as he scores another hat trick to make it his fourth of the season and Trincão scores in additional time to ensure the new coach doesn't get off to a losing start.

31 goals in all competitions, 4 in the Champions League, 2 in the Taça de Portugal, 3 in the Taça da Liga and an astonishing 21 in 17 games in the league. 

With the winter transfer window now open speculation continued about his future but the Portuguese media had confirmed in the summer a gentleman's agreement was in place to allow him to move for around €70m. No one other than those after clicks thought or suggested he could move away mid season. 

Sporting had found themselves in the grip of an injury crisis. An injury to the Swede could now be a death nail in the coffin for their season as the players tried to adapt to playing with a back four. 

Any suggestions that Sporting were a one man team in the 2023/24 season are frankly laughable. In the league they scored 96 goals in 34 games so Gyökeres was accountable for 30.21% of that total. They scored a total of one hundred and forty one goals in all competitions, Viktor Gyökeres was merely the icing on the cake. That's right Sporting scored two shy of a century of goals without Gyökeres getting the last touch. I think we did OK as a team last season, thank you very much. However, as the club entered 2025 with their title hopes vanishing fast, qualification for the Champions League knockouts looking unlikely, you couldn't really argue that Sporting were fast becoming over reliant on the Swede. It felt like a case of damage limitation rather than a regrouping of efforts with ever diminishing resources at the disposal of the new mister. Pedro Gonçalves hadn't played since Amorims last game in charge against Braga and would be scheduled for a return around March at the earliest. Sporting accepted a loan move from Championship side Burnley for Marcus Edwards having fallen out of favour twelve months earlier. Quenda was struggling wide left of a front three playing off his favoured right hand side. Harder whilst impressing hugely in cameo appearances in the cup, still some way from being the finished article. 

By now Gyökeres wasn't just proving he was the best player in the league but incredibly going about cementing a reputation for being the best 9, 10, false 9, left winger and right winger. Every game he was popping up in more areas over the course of 90 minutes. The so called in the knows were desperately trying to discredit his scoring record armed with the one statistic of how many penalties he'd scored. If only you were all taking the time to watch him week in and week out. Gyökeres could have had 30 assists for the season if only he could have been in two places at once. For every gilt edged opportunity spurned you knew had he been on the end of the chance he'd have most likely scored. However he was for now the only lion really capable of fashioning these chances. That is what Joseph Heller would have defined as the definitive Catch 22. If he could have had 30 assists it goes without saying he could have had 30 goals with the same service himself. 

Over the years I've been able to witness some incredible seasons from individual players. I moan about too much football but at least we now love in a time where if you know the right places to look you can see every game. I watched Dimitri Payet in all his glory for West Ham during the 2025/16. I watched Hakimi rise to arguably the best right wing back in World football at Internazionale in the 2020/21 season. For Sporting the entire debut season for Nuno Mendes at left wing back before the Parisian vultures swooped the following summer. I've wondered at the sights of Raphinha combining with Bruno Fernandes to devastating effect. Pablo Sarabia with his big smile but all pale into insignificance of this current season watching Viktor Gyökeres. It has without a shadow of a doubt been an incredibly special watch. I'd run out of superlatives for him along with everyone else in Portugal a long time ago. You'll have a generation of Portuguese players who will certainly come to name Gyökeres as the hardest opponent they faced during their careers. He's left defenders falling like autumn leaves all season long. I can't say who I enjoyed watching more out of Payet and Gyökeres. There's no law I have to choose, so I'll simply say if I couldn't watch live football ever again and had to pick two seasons to watch over from two players, those are the two I'd choose to watch. Trying to compare the two isn't easy and probably isn't fair anyway. Payet had the Gaelic flair and panache. Gyökeres is like slamming your fingers in a door, it's brutal and torturous and on his day he is as ruthless and as devastating as any forward I've ever seen. Viktor is to put it simply - a born winner. 

Full disclosure as I write the 2024/25 seasons still not finished and Sporting play Gil Vicente at home tonight, then away at Benfica, home to Vitória and finally again against Benfica in Jamor for the final of the Taça de Portugal which should be Gyökeres last game in a lions shirt, destination unknown although by the time you're reading this it will no doubt have all been over and you might well know where his future lies. There is a very real scenario that Sporting win the sum total of fuck and all this season and any accolades will be Gyökeres' alone. I really am trying not to contemplate what it would feel like to lose the title to our biggest rivals. That would mean they've done the double at a minimum, beating Sporting already on penalties in the Taça da Liga. My heart just sunk thinking if they do the treble on top of us losing Gyökeres where do you go from there as a group? It gets worse though. Come second in the league and Amorim's Manchester United win the Europa League and thus qualify for the Champions League we'll most likely be looking at having to start the season early in the qualifying rounds. Any benefit from Porto and Benfica participating in the Club World Cup will be lost. That's summer utterly ruined before it begins. Did I mention what we do have right now though? A very much on form Gyökeres who spoiler alert finished the last game having scored four and at the time of writing tops the race to become the European Golden Boot ahead of Liverpool's Mo Salah. 

Back to January of 2025…

I'd mentioned the hat trick in the 4-4 against Vitória. That was the first game of 2025 but the last of the round of 17. Borges was being submitted to a quite literal baptism of fire, following the draw against the club he'd just left, he was thrown into a Clássico as we faced Porto in the semi-final of the Taça da Liga on Tuesday January 7th with a spot in the final at place for the winner on Saturday the 11th. Gyökeres scores the winner in a 1-0 win and plays the full 90. So for the misters third game, how about a derby against arch rivals Benfica? Not what he would have ordered I'm sure but Gyökeres on the scoresheet again but unable to prevent Sporting going down to a defeat on penalties. Three finals for Gyökeres, three defeats. 

Disaster strikes. Gyökeres is showing signs of an injury again. He makes a cameo appearance as substitute for 9 minutes against Rio Ave and still manages to contribute another goal. Incredibly he does the same against RB Leipzig where he only plays 35 minutes. Strangely he's used for the full 90 against lowly National. The decision months later is still perplexing. He then missed the Champions League tie against Bologna and the following league game against Farense. Somehow despite all the injuries to date as a club we'd kept our heads above water. The loss of Gyökeres is really bad news. He managed 21 minutes against Porto and 31 minutes against BVB. 

Hope springs eternal when he scores against AVS. Sporting had then gone 5 games without a Gyökeres goal. Just 52 minutes of football played out of 360 in the last 4 games. This was very much preparation for what life will feel like next season after he leaves in the summer. 

He plays 45 minutes in the second half in the Taça de Portugal win over Gil Vicente, Debast scored the only goal in a 1-0 win. Has the game management paid off from Borges in recent weeks? Step forward Estoril - brace from Gyökeres. Casa Pia try their hand at stopping him and failed - another brace. Famalicão fared a little better with just the one for Viktor. Another brace against Estrela, one in the Taça de Portugal against Rio Ave in the semi final first leg and the goal in the 1-1 draw at home to Braga. Six straight games with goals to his name, 9 in the 5 league games. 

He hits the post away to Santa Clara but that's the closest he comes on the day but takes his anger out at the miss on Moreirense, another matchball to add to his collection, another three goals to his season's tally. Adds another in the second leg of the semi-final of the Taça de Portugal to take Sporting to the final in May and as I write ahead of the Gil Vicente game tonight, the last time out against Boavista he scored 4, the second time he's scored what the Portuguese and Spanish refer to as a poker. Or what we would simply call scoring four times. Oh he did it too for Sweden against Azerbaijan in November just for good measure. 

So from the Porto semi final onwards 22 goals to take his tally up to 52 in all competitions for the lions. Throw in 11 assists for good measure though I'm not sure they record the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga ones so plausibly the overall figure is greater. His 38 goals to date in the league do make up 45.78% of the teams goals scored in the league but I've held my hands up that season we've had to become increasingly reliant on him. He's now scored 52 of the 119 goals scored in all competitions which currently is 43.70% of the overall total. He has an xG to date of 29.2 in the league against the 38 he's scored. Bear in mind penalties normally account for about 0.8 per conversion of that xG total. Take the 12 penalties away to leave 26 and the lad can stick them in from everywhere. 

With the season not yet over I thought I'd share his three strikes from free kicks just to wet the appetite;

Nacional

https://youtu.be/kMjcq1JQD0w?si=Ved2LXASifMHXBJX

Braga

https://youtu.be/bK-CrXsmu_w?si=_fAcardkqA2mEegZ

Moreirense 

https://youtu.be/dWhih1wwZrs?si=TyXcWSBLNMxnT6qb

To be concluded….

As I pick this post back up the season has now finished. I left it with four games to go and after two of those I was convinced I'd done my world famous kiss of death trick. Here I am thinking our Swedish superstar is going to be firing the goals in, hit the hundred goal mark before he signed off and instead he starts off with drawing a blank against both Gil Vicente and in the Dérbi against Benfica that was supposed to be the Dérbi of all Dérbi's. The title deciding one that would be remembered throughout the ages and instead turned out to be the complete opposite and merely saw the title decider move onto the final round where Sporting just needed to win against Vitória to become back to back Champions. 

Sounds simple when I write it now knowing that Sporting finished title winners. They do say that hindsight is 20/20. Gil Vicente took a first half lead and Sporting's equaliser came with less than ten minutes left on the clock. Miraculously it's Eduardo Quaresma with his first shot on target all season who scores an injury time winner. As for Gyökeres? I think probably for the first time in a Sporting shirt he doesn't record either a shot on or off target in that match. His only effort over the course of the game was a blocked shot.

At the Estádio da Luz he does turn provider with the assist as Trincão swept home within 3 minutes of the kick off to give the lions an early lead. Two shots on target this time around but still he draws a blank. This is why I'm not a script writer. All season long I've written about expectation management and like an idiot I didn't temper my own expectations going into the remaining four games. That's the problem, Gyökeres has been that great I forgot that he's still human and he's not going to find the net every single game he plays in. 

If you were to write a script though surely you'd have him scoring the last goal of the league campaign to secure Sporting back to back league title wins, that's destiny right? That's the Hollywood ending. 29 goals in 33 appearances in his debut season as a lion, 38 goals in 32 appearances prior to kick off against Vitória. Did anyone think he wouldn't sign off with at least one more goal at the José Alvalade? Cometh the man, cometh the hour as he scores the second goal in the 2-0 win to secure all three points and Sporting are once more Campeãos. 

39 goals in 33 games, not a club record for the league but an incredible total nonetheless. It'll be a long time before anyone comes close again that's for certain. Ten added to his total from his debut season to make it 68 goals in 66 appearances. Incrível. I've at least added one more word of Portuguese to my vocabulary after the title celebrations. 

So one game remained. Despite his Uncle stating the family had decided that Viktor should stay with Sporting it still looks highly unlikely unless you factor in his relationship with Portuguese actress Inês Aguiar who might get a casting vote. I'm not holding my breath. The scene was set at Jamor. Could this be the Dérbi that would be remembered down the ages? Both sides with one title a piece this season, but the lions with the big one, the neighbours with the Taça da Liga. One side would finish with the double. Sporting had lost here twelve months earlier against Porto. There's no way the story wasn't written for the Swede to be the main event right?

Maybe Benfica didn't get the script? Maybe they got the script and just didn't like what was written? We knew the trophy was going back to Lisboa come the end of the game if nothing else. By half time however it was getting harder to make the case it was coming to live in the green and white half of the city. Benfica were awarded a penalty which was correctly overturned by VAR and whilst it finished 0-0 at the break, they were the better team and the lions looked like a side that had partied maybe a little too hard into the early hours of the Sunday morning before. 

Two minutes into the second half and we see a wonder strike from 25 yards into the bottom left hand corner of… Rui Silva's net as Kökcü wheeled away to celebrate with the red and white faithful congregated behind the goal. Two minutes later Bruma swept home to make it 2-0. Any bitterness at the overturned penalty now long forgotten by their fans in attendance. The engraver was probably thinking about getting started on the trophy whilst Bruma blew up a red balloon arms held aloft, red smoke billowing from the stand, Kökcü on the floor with his finger to his lips shushing the Sporting players…

The move had started in midfield. Somewhere in Portugal VAR officials were busy checking on a possible foul on Trincão by Carreras in the opening salvo. Luis Godhino one finger in his ear to block out the noise whilst in the other he's being told to disallow the goal and show a yellow card for the challenge and that's exactly what he does. The Benfica fans didn't need a finger to shush them, they did it all by themselves without instructions. You'd have thought that Sporting had equalised by the noise coming from the other end of the field. There was still hope which you could argue had also translated into belief if the noise being made was anything to go by.

The play acting started from Benfica. Every time there was contact, down they went and the physio came on to treat a player. A raft of substitutions from both sides adding more time to follow at the end of the 90. Some wonderful irony as Otamendi genuinely injured himself as he headbutt one of his own players. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. 90 minutes gone, no equaliser in regular time. All eyes on the fourth official, she raises the board… 10 minutes additional time to be played. The minutes counted off 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 … Gyökeres picks up the ball and starts maybe his last run into the opposing 18 yard box as a Sporting player. Renato Sanches the one time golden boy of Benfica, way back before anyone even knew who João Felix was, had been brought on as a substitute after he returned on loan to the club where he'd made his name… he goes to make a challenge, gets his timing all wrong and takes down the Swede in the box. Godhino has no hesitation in pointing to the spot. 

Ten yards between Sporting and an extra half hour to be played. We've seen Gyökeres miss from the penalty spot but we've only seen him miss once during his time as a lion. All season long people on social media have written him off as someone who only scores penalties, zero idea of how good a player he is and as to why he's twice voted as the best player in Portuguese football. You can tell a lot from reading statistics, you can tell a whole fucking lot more from watching players week in and week out. There's no one more in World football that Sportinguista's want stood ready to take this kick to make it 1-1. Absolutely no one! Try find me one fan who didn't think that he was going to score, it'll be a long search. Soares in the Benfica goal would equally rather have faced anyone else at that point. They both knew the outcome before the ball had even been kicked. BANG! Soares goes to his right, Gyökeres is off across the running track behind the goal to celebrate his 54th goal in a Sporting shirt for this campaign. That's not a typo by the way. FIFTY FOUR goals in fifty two appearances. Some say he's not good enough for the big stage, well he's just done it in Portuguese Cup Final. Eight days earlier he's scored the second to secure back to back title wins against a side who finished one place behind a Chelsea team in Europe that cost the best part of a billion pounds to assemble. I mean I clearly dreamt the hat-trick against the current Premier League title winners Manchester City in the Champions League. Maybe I also dreamt the other 3 goals in that competition? It's not like he didn't score five in his first European campaign as well. Here's a man that missed pre-season through knee surgery and yet still started the season finding the net in the opening weeks time again despite only being partially match fit. Who come the end of 2024 and start of 2025 was again suffering with an injury to his over knee. Bollocks to Mbappe when his goals count as 2 to 1.5 for Gyökeres because of the leagues they play in. Leganés, Las Palmas, Getafe - arrange a tournament for them to play against Sporting and Benfica and we'll see if goals against them are really worth 2.0 Vs a 1.5 goal against a Vitória SC as the most obvious example. Thankfully the Swede if he is bitter about it will keep it to himself as the French striker won the Golden boot or so they call it the golden shoe now which makes the sum total of fuck and all sense. Which ever. Just don't argue La Liga isn't jam packed with as much shit at the bottom of the table as the Primeira Liga. 

Back to Jamor… I've written it dozens of times about Viktor Gyökeres that this kid is a winner. You can see it in everything he does. He doesn't know when he's beaten. He's still that kid that first kicked a ball in Sweden, you can't tell him no. He'd be on two crutches and look you in the eyes as a mister and try convince you he's fine to play for 90 minutes. Yet it's not about him. Sporting owe the footballing world an apology for setting loose the egoistical maniac that is Cristiano Ronaldo. Extra time had he played in a Sporting shirt would have been all about him and only him. He'd have wanted to score the winner. I truly believe when I write for Gyökeres that he just wanted to ensure Sporting won that I'm not making it up for effect. 

This competition for Sporting has been all about the Scandinavian big man up front. I said the script writers have been busy. Benfica are crestfallen before a ball has even been kicked in additional time. Any belief they had was folding away faster than Superman on washing day. So when the big blonde Scandinavian makes it 2-1 and ran to the Benfica fans with his finger against his lips should any of us been surprised? Schandorf it was to add to his tally in this competition..that's Conrad Harder Weibel Schandorf to give him his full name. I know the kids built like a fucking wardrobe but even his shoulders aren't that wide. If the King is about to be sold then long live the new King. What a player to have sat and learned from all season long. There's a first hand education that's set to pay dividends for Sporting even if Gyökeres does go. Sorry did you think Gyökeres had scored? Oh come on even Hollywood script writers wouldn't have written that one in, no one would have believed that after he took it to extra time people's. 

Sporting on the back foot, defending as if theirs lives depended on it. Benfica throwing everything they had left at Rui Silva but he's no intention of letting another ball enter his net. Seconds left of the 120 minutes. Now the neighbours have their minds on the board about to go up to see how long is left in the game. They should have instead been paying more attention to Harder as he presses forward with the ball into the Benfica half. You'd be forgiven if you thought you were watching the directors cut of the movie in slow motion. The Dane in two minds, take it the corner or see if something else develops. Two men with him, Gyökeres left, Trincão right. The latter saw his penalty saved to hand Benfica the win in the Taça da Liga. His redemption arc completed in the Estádio da Luz after three minutes of the penultimate game, this story isn't written for him. Conrad Harder the pretender to the throne, he's already scored, this isn't written for him either. This is all set up for Gyökeres, we know what's about to happen. GOAL Benfica 1 Sporting CP 3. It had to be right? Right? Well remember when I wrote about Ronaldo? CR7 will have tried everything to get a shot away that wasn't on. What does Viktor do? He squares it back to Harder, who scores… Nope. He squares it off to Harder who squares it off to Trincão, and it turned out his redemption arc wasn't as complete as we'd thought, he beats his marker with his first touch and sweeps home with his second. That's what this team is about - lado a lado. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… The board went back up - five minutes additional time. By now all was won and lost depending on which side of the city divide you came from. Their was definitely a fire drill down the other end of Jamor as red and white shirts poured out the exits. 

The beauty of the third goal didn't lie in the fact it cemented the winning of the Taça de Portugal. It didn't come in beating our rivals in the Dérbi de Lisboa or gaining revenge on the loss in the Taça da Liga or because it meant we won the double. They say football is a simple game. Well maybe it is or maybe you've just got players capable of making it look simple. It started with Conrad Harder doing the maths. Option one they take it to the corner not knowing how long remains in the game to add on. Option two he tries to drive down the centre with the ball and either try a shot himself or hope that after 120 minutes Gyökeres and Trincão still had enough in their legs to make a run either side of him and he could lay the ball off. Option 3 he trusts implicitly the best player in Portugal to lay the ball into and make the run to receive the pass back knowing he's the one with the fresher legs and that he'll then be equally as unselfish and pass to Trincão who still had work to do with his first touch but boy did he do it. There's the lesson kids. Do you want to be Ronaldo who'd have insisted on recieving the ball and tried to have taken the shot when it wasn't on? Or do you want to be Gyökeres and have the faith in your teammates as they showed in you at that moment to finish the job and win your team the cup? Somewhere in a parallel universe that move went into the corner, the goal doesn't get scored, the board goes up for five minutes and Benfica equalise to take it to penalties. Maybe Sporting still win even then though. Maybe Gyökeres scores the decisive penalty. Maybe he stays in the summer, maybe he never leaves. Maybe him and Inês have a son who takes after his father, gets enrolled in the academy and in twenty years time someone else is writing a new chapter about a different Gyökeres.

I've seen it written by other writers this Sporting is a one man team. Watch that third goal if you want proof that it's the complete opposite. You want numbers to back that statement up? OK I'll give you numbers; 39 league goals for the Swedish Panzer this season, Sporting scored 88 in total. Last season 96 scored, 29 by the Swede. 44.32% this and 30.21% last as percentage of his goals of the overall totals. Yes you could say they've been reliant on him more this season but you'd be saying it only if you've not watched him play every game because he's grown as a player. He's not complete, he has his faults, he gets marked out of some games when the opposition puts ten men behind a ball in a space of 12 yards. We've won a league title without him in the past five seasons, moreover we won that league with Tiago Tomás up front. Gyökeres is the icing on the cake. Do we win the league without him last season? Maybe. Do we win it without him this season? Undoubtedly not. He was the difference maker, the decisive factor. But it takes eleven men on the pitch to win a game of football. Don't fool yourself into thinking one player is capable of winning a title all by themselves because they're not. 

You've twenty two men on the pitch at the start of every game, four officials making the decisions, a team in the VAR studios. Throw in injuries, suspensions, kick off times, changes in coaches, the effect of European games on domestic games even the weather. Winning any league isn't a given. It has to be earned. Gyökeres might go on to win another title next season if he moves, he might not. This season he's been allowed the space to roam, to drag defenders like a car drags someone with their coat stuck in the car door as it pulls off down the road. He's caused untold carnage and he's going to be living rent free in the heads of defenders in Portugal for a long time to come. If he leaves Sporting then defenders, coaches and fans of all the other teams will be celebrating his departure. If he goes will a new coach give him that same freedom of movement? Or do they try fit him into a structure that doesn't suit his game? I've watched dozens of times where he's pulled apart defenders on either wing and would have had an assist if only he could have been on the end of the pass he's been looking to make. A better team than Sporting would have benefited from that type of play and movement. He could have been the difference maker for say a Manchester City this season had he done the same there of that I've no doubt and yet actually, I doubt Pep would have let him off the leash. Bad example. 

Look it's conjecture but I don't think it's hyperbole. This Sporting side may have won back to back titles but it's not a team of superstars even if for me Gyökeres is the player you could apply that tag to now. Round holes in round pegs. A coach who preaches positivity to the players rather than telling the media how they're constantly suffering for the three points. Tell someone they're tired often enough and even after twelve hours sleep they'll sit there yawning and think that you were spot on. 

I've watched some truly great players in my time watching the club; I've seen Bruno Fernandes, Raphinha, Jérémy Mathieu, Pablo Sarabia, Rafael Leão, Nuno Mendes, João Palhinha, João Mario, Adrien Silva, Antonio Adán… but for me one player now sits above them all and that's Viktor Gyökeres. He's not perfect, he's not the finished article, but he is a winner. Whatever he has if you could bottle it you'd make a fortune and retire. I once joked the club should put him out to stud and have all the ladies of Lisboa lined up to be impregnated. He's got big shoes to fill but the futures bright with Conrad Harder. Wherever he goes we'll wish him well. You won't find a bad word said about him from the Sporting fans. OK there will be one or two idiots but those who haven't let the family dog borrow their brain cells they won't say anything bad … unless he goes to the red and white half of the city. 

Tack Viktor. It's been emotional.