Ready to go: Viktor Gyökeres unfazed by pressure at Arsenal
HONG KONG — The weight of expectations on Viktor Gyökeres was already considerable before he took Arsenal’s No. 14 shirt. That jersey was made iconic by striker Thierry Henry, who scored 228 goals between 1999 and 2007 to post a total no other man has matched in the club’s history.
The Gunners arguably haven’t had a truly elite striker since. Robin van Persie (who wore the No. 10 at the end of his Arsenal career) had all the class but struggled to stay fit. Theo Walcott inherited the No. 14 from Henry and kept it during a near-decade of escalating frustration among the fan base as longtime manager Arsène Wenger’s powers gradually waned. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the last No. 14, Eddie Nketiah, both failed to end the club’s long wait for a first Premier League title since Henry & Co. won it in 2003-04 without losing a single match.
But after three consecutive second-place finishes under coach Mikel Arteta, there is widespread hope among fans that Gyökeres, the Gunners’ sixth summer acquisition but undeniably the most anticipated, is the final piece in the puzzle, the star signing recruited for an initial €63 million from Sporting CP who turns them from runners-up into champions. No pressure.
– How Arsenal new signing Gyökeres became Europe’s top striker
– Why did the Gyökeres’ transfer take so long to complete?
– Ødegaard helping guide young Arsenal stars Dowman, Salmon
The No. 10 shirt was vacant, although one source suggested to ESPN that it may be earmarked for someone else in the squad. Gyökeres could have requested it to avoid the Henry comparison. Instead, when speaking to a small group of assembled reporters at the Rosewood Hotel in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Gyökeres was unfazed by the number’s legacy.
“It’s not really my intention to be compared with what he’s achieved in his career,” said Gyökeres. “Especially here. I just want to do my own thing and show my qualities. Of course he was an amazing player, but different from me. I just want to try to do my own thing.
“Of course I know about the history. But to be honest there weren’t so many numbers available. There weren’t too many to pick from. But of course that one was available. So when I knew that it was an easy choice to take it.”
Arteta was impressed with his new striker’s mindset. “I use the word ‘conviction’ and that’s the first thing that I noticed when I spoke to him,” the Arsenal boss said. “Someone very determined, someone that was already really attached to the club the way he was talking about the club, the history and in this case Thierry and what the shirt represented. He straight away felt it. And when you feel it, go for it.”
Although the wait for Gyökeres’ transfer to be finalized felt interminable for many following the saga, with the framework of a deal being agreed before negotiations stalled over the nature of add-ons, the 27-year-old himself was not immune to the situation. After refusing to report back to Sporting for preseason training, Gyökeres trained alone as Arsenal pushed to reach an agreement.
Sources told ESPN that his agent waived a €6.3 million fee to help bridge the gap between the clubs, and only during Arsenal’s preseason tour to Asia was there a meaningful breakthrough when the Gunners agreed to more achievable triggers for the performance-related add-ons. As late as the night before the deal was confirmed on July 26, sources said senior figures at Arsenal were sweating on the details to make sure everything was finalized.
“I tried to train as much as possible by myself and keep the day going,” Gyökeres said. “A lot of days were the same kind of routine. I woke up, trained, had dinner and then went to bed again. It was like that for a few weeks, but it was worth it for sure.
“It’s been a new experience. I haven’t really been in that situation before. It’s been a lot of waiting from my side. I wanted to come here, but it wasn’t that easy. But I’m finally here and it feels great.”
Manchester United were linked with interest at one stage, especially following Ruben Amorim’s move from Sporting to Old Trafford late last year. Such were Gyökeres’ ludicrous scoring numbers during his two title-winning seasons in Lisbon — 97 goals in 102 games — that he was linked with a host of clubs across Europe.
“I think you can always have a decision [over] your future,” Gyökeres said. “Of course there were other clubs as well, but I didn’t feel it was a difficult choice for me this time.”
There are, however, some doubts about how well that scoring form will translate from the Portuguese Primeira Liga. The Premier League — and competing on four fronts for 10 months of the year — will demand more of him and come with higher levels of scrutiny.
During an open training session in Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium later on Wednesday, his image on the big screen drew the biggest cheers from around 20,000 fans in attendance, alongside 15-year-old Max Dowman’s, and the goals he scored during various drills — which were numerous — received rapturous applause. There will be no hiding place.
When it was put to Gyökeres that Darwin Núñez arrived from Portugal with a big reputation for a big fee from Benfica to Liverpool in 2022 only to struggle, he said: “I think I’ll have to adapt. But I think there are a lot of players from Portugal who have done even better in England. It depends on who you pick.
“I think it’s difficult to compare one player to another. And how they’re performing in a different league. Because there are a lot of different factors. Not only a better league. If you play in a better team also, it makes it easier. Especially if you’re an attacking player. So we’ll have to see.
“I think I have enough expectations on myself. I’ll just try to perform anyway, to be honest — just to keep going the way I’ve been doing the last couple of years. Just trying to improve as well on the pitch. Try to help the team as much as I can.”
Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard has been impressed with what he has seen. A source close to Ødegaard told ESPN that he spent time with Gyökeres off the field shortly after their arrival in Hong Kong, trying to help him adjust.
“With the language and everything it is a bit easier for me to help him,” Ødegaard said. “We can speak our own language. And Scandinavians always bond well together, in that way it has been really natural.
“Every new player, we always try to help them in the best possible way. That’s what I felt when I came here, I felt at home straight away and I felt how good the culture and the environment and the culture is to get into.
“Everyone just wants to help you and get the best out of you. It’s important that you do things off the pitch and that’s what we all do. We are just there to help and so far he is having a good time I think.
“You’ve all seen what he’s done in his career so far and especially the last season at Sporting, the numbers speak for themselves. But he’s a very complete player, he’s physical, strong, fast, good finisher and intelligent as well. I think he’s a very complete striker and we can also see the hunger and the energy he brings. So really excited to have him with the team, and he’s only trained a few times but you can already see the quality, the energy and the willingness so excited to share the pitch with him.”
Perhaps the experience of English football at Brighton & Hove Albion (2018-2021), Swansea City (2020-21, on loan) and Coventry City (2021-2023) — albeit outside of the Premier League — will help Gyökeres in his adaptation.
“It makes it easier,” he said. “I’m used to the weather and everything around. I’ve been in England before for a few years. So some aspects I think it helps. But of course there are a lot of new things as well. A new group, a new idea of playing. I think I need to adapt to that as well.”
As he settles into his new life as an Arsenal player and prepares for his first run-out with the team in Thursday’s friendly against Tottenham Hotspur, Gyökeres is, at least for now, a man of relatively few words, perfectly polite but laconic rather than loquacious. After a difficult summer and a delayed arrival at his new club, he was asked whether he will be ready for the first Premier League game — at Manchester United on Aug. 17.
“Yeah,” he said, thinking briefly whether to add anything else. He left it there, with the single-mindedness of a man ready to take it all in his stride.