Viktor Gyokeres to be fined and apologise to team-mates after missing Sporting return
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Viktor Gyokeres to be fined and told to apologise after missing Sporting return – president
Viktor Gyokeres will be fined by Sporting CP and told to apologise to his team-mates after missing his deadline to report to pre-season training. The Sweden international’s absence from training does not come as a surprise, with The Athletic reporting on Friday that the striker did not intend to turn up as he pursues a move to Arsenal. Gunners have a five-year deal prepared, subject to an agreement being reached over a fee, with the two clubs in advanced talks. Sporting president Frederico Varandas believes Arsenal have reneged on an pact to let him go for €60million plus €10m.
Arsenal are working to sign Gyokeres and have a five-year deal prepared, subject to an agreement being reached over a fee, with the two clubs in advanced talks.
Advertisement
The Sweden international’s absence from training does not come as a surprise, with The Athletic reporting on Friday that the striker did not intend to turn up as he pursues a move to Arsenal.
Gyokeres believes Sporting president Varandas has reneged on an pact to let him go for €60million plus €10m, which Arsenal have already surpassed but still no agreement is in place on a fee.
“We’re calm. Everything will be resolved with the closing of the market, a heavy fine, and an apology to the group,” Frederico Varandas told the Lusa agency.
“If they (interested clubs) don’t want to pay fair market value for Viktor, we are very comfortable with that for the next three years (the length of his contract).”
Varandas then said that recent events did not make the 27-year-old’s exit from Sporting more likely, and reiterated that he would not be pressurised into a transfer.
“If the geniuses who are devising this strategy think that this puts pressure on me to facilitate the exit, they are not only completely wrong but are also making the player’s exit even more complicated.
“No one is above the club’s interests, whoever they may be.”
Sporting’s squad left for their training camp in the Algarve without the striker. They will play Celtic on Wednesday and Sunderland five days later as they begin their preparations for 2025-26.
Gyokeres scored 54 goals in 52 games in 2024-25 for the Portuguese club, helping them to the Portuguese league and cup double.
Gyokeres has scored 97 goals in 102 games since moving to Sporting from Coventry City in 2023. He helped them lift the Primeira Liga title last year and win a league and cup double this time around.
He scored only one goal for Brighton & Hove Albion before departing on loan to both Swansea City and later Coventry. Coventry made the move permanent in 2021 and he went on to score 43 times in 117 games. The Swede joined Sporting for a club-record fee in July 2023, signing a five-year contract.
(Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)