Striker Viktor Gyokeres announced that he would not return to Sporting Lisbon this summer, in order to pressure the club to let him leave.
The tension between the Swedish striker and the Portuguese team is increasingly escalating, when Sporting tries to extend the deal to achieve the highest transfer fee possible.
The president of Sporting, Frederico Varandas, recently spoke many times about the incident, in order to ease the fans of the team. The focus of the controversy is a “underground agreement” between Gyokeres and the club leadership, that he can leave with a lower fee than the official liberation clause.
However, Gyokeres believed that it was time for him to leave Lisbon to search for new challenges at a higher level. After the brilliant season of 2024/25 with 53 goals and 13 assists in 51 matches, helping Sporting win a domestic double, the 27 -year -old star felt he deserved to be able to create favorable conditions to leave.
Although Sporting allowed Gyokeres to take another week before focusing on the new season, the Record (Portugal) revealed that the striker would not return to the army. Gyokeres felt he was betrayed and directly said it to Varandas. He also threatened to publicize the story to protect his personal stance.
Gyokeres used to be MU and Arsenal's targets, but the £ 55 million offer was rejected by Sporting. Meanwhile, MU has turned to Bryan Mbeumo, and Arsenal is prioritizing RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko, causing Gyokeres's deal to delay – which makes him extremely urgent and disappointed.
Now, it is almost sure that if Gyokeres left, he would not leave the club in peace, because Varandas claimed not to give in.
“Sporting is very calm about this,” Varandas said. “We do not need to sell Viktor Gyokeres. We have overcome the period to sell the pillars to survive. However, we still understand the dreams of Viktor as well as other players. We have agreed that we will not require sufficient value in the liberation clause, but will be flexible in price.
I can say, Viktor will not leave for 60+10 million euros. Certainly not. It is impossible to have that. I followed the market and saw Zubimendi, six months younger than Viktor, just sold for 65 million euros. I also found Cunha and Mbeumo, in my view that was not the same level as Viktor, was valued at about 75 million euros.
With the price that we think is reasonable, I believe Viktor can leave – unless he has the worst representative in the world, which I don't think happens, because Viktor is one of the best strikers in the world today. “
Currently, Gyokeres still has a contract with Sporting until 2028.