Football
Arsenal agree to pay around £55m to sign Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres; negotiations continue over add-ons; Sweden international, 27, has been Arsenal’s primary focus in the transfer window after previously being linked with RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko
By Dharmesh Sheth and Zinny Boswell
Sunday 13 July 2025 22:30, UK
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Arsenal are close to reaching a total agreement for the signing of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting.
The Premier League club are expected to pay a fixed fee of £55m (€63.5M) while add-ons are still being finalised and could reach up to £8.6M (€10m).
It is understood there was a breakthrough in negotiations when Gyokeres’ agent agreed to waive a commission he was due from the deal.
This lowered the asking price for Arsenal on the guaranteed money without Sporting receiving less than they wanted.
Bringing in a striker has been a primary focus for Arsenal in this transfer window – they have explored conditions for a number of players, including RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
Sky Sports News reported in June that Gyokeres was a Manchester United target after they made an initial approach for him through intermediaries.
Last month, Sporting president Frederico Varandas revealed Gyokeres would not be allowed to leave for £59m (€70m) this summer after disputing the existence of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with the Swede’s agent that would allow him to leave for a fixed fee of £50.8m (€60m), plus £8.4m (€10m) in add ons.
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After joining Sporting from Coventry City for around £20m in 2023, Gyokeres has scored an incredible 97 goals in just 102 matches during his two seasons in the Portuguese capital.
Gyokeres netted 54 goals in only 52 games in all competitions last campaign, including a hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League, as he helped Sporting win the league and the Portuguese Cup.
A move to Arsenal would see Gyokeres return to English football, having joined Brighton & Hove Albion in January 2018, before moving to Coventry after loan spells at St Pauli and Swansea City.
Gyokeres scored 43 goals for Coventry in his two-and-a-half seasons with the Championship side.
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright:
Sporting are expected to make a huge profit on Gyokeres’s anticipated sale.
The 27-year-old, who joined Coventry on loan from Brighton initially before making the move permanent in 2021, has hit new heights since his switch to Portugal, smashing 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting, including 11 in 17 in European competition.
His remarkable scoring exploits have seen him almost treble in value to £64.8m in the space of two years, according to the website Transfermarkt, who valued him at less than £1m when he joined Coventry from Brighton in the summer of 2021.
He has proved a late bloomer, but his rapid rise to prominence in recent seasons has put him on the shortlists of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
Developments around Gyokeres come amid a busy summer of incomings at Arsenal.
They have announced the signing of midfielder Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad in a £51m deal. And another central midfielder, Christian Norgaard, arrived from Brentford for £15m.
Spaniard Kepa Arrizabalaga was signed for £5m from Chelsea, while Arsenal are close to signing another player from their London rivals, after agreeing a £52m deal for Noni Madueke.
From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.
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