"I believe that not even Sporting fans expected an immediate response from him. Gyökeres has maintained a very high level of consistency since the beginning of the championship and is now a rare talent in football, since, in addition to scoring goals and being very opportunistic, he plays and works very hard for the team. Sporting was very lucky and the results are there to confirm it", said the former 'lions' striker, between 1987 and 1990, to the Lusa agency.

Almost 40% of the 'lions' offensive production in the various competitions had direct participation from Gyökeres, the 15th Sporting player to be distinguished as the top scorer in the I League, with 29 goals, in a season in which he has already 'scored' 43 times and made 14 assists in 49 duels.

The Swede now joins Fernando Peyroteo (six distinctions), Soeiro, Héctor Yazalde or Liedson (all with two) and Vasques, João Martins, Ernesto Figueiredo, Jordão, Manuel Fernandes, Cascavel, Jorge Cadete, Mário Jardel or Bas Dost (one) among the top 'gunners' in an edition of the I League for the 'lions', a group that had not been expanded since 2020/21, when midfielder Pedro Gonçalves celebrated 23 goals towards the first title in 19 years.

"I considered myself a good 'area rat', who positioned himself and scored many goals, but I didn't go into the clash as much. The most distinctive features compared to Gyökeres are physical strength and explosiveness. I was a bit more technical than him, but we are very similar in the rest. Gyökeres is not yet a complete player, nor the best in the world, but he is very good and will grow even more", stressed Paulinho Cascavel, top scorer in the 1986/87 and 1987/88 editions of the championship at the service of Vitória de Guimarães and Sporting, respectively.

The most expensive reinforcement in the 'lions' history, when hired from Coventry for 20 million euros (ME) fixed, plus four in variables, the 25-year-old striker achieved the best numbers of his career, in which he had reached double digits of goals three times.

The prolific experiences in the 'sky blues' (2021-2023), from the second English tier, and in the Swedish Brommapojkarna (2017) contrasted with the irregularity in Brighton (2018-2021), from the Premier League, which led him to be loaned to St. Pauli, from the German second division (2019/20), and to the Welsh Swansea (2020/21), from the same level as Coventry.

"Sporting creates a lot for the forwards and both he and Paulinho benefit a lot from the '3-4-3' scheme implemented by Ruben Amorim. Gyökeres didn't score as much in other seasons and for Sweden, because perhaps the game system didn't favor him. Sometimes, a player is in good shape at the club, but doesn't perform as well for the national team. These are phases", said Cascavel, in view of the six goals in 20 international matches for the Nordic team.

Placing Gyökeres "at the level of the great scorers" of Sporting, the former player, aged 64, praises the "fundamental weight" of the Swede in the "best football" of the I League, at a time when the 'lions' have scored 140 goals in all competitions in 2023/24 and have not scored as much since 1946/47, the season of the first of three consecutive titles sealed by the 'five violins'.

"Sporting made a bet that was very successful and any big European club will have the greatest interest in Gyökeres, but it will certainly cost at least 100 ME. As he has a good contract, which lasts for another four years, [the renewal] would not be something decisive to be done at this time. Now, if the club sees fit, the athlete should have a salary increase, because he produced and delivered results. For me, it is unlikely that he will stay at Sporting for all that time", stressed Paulo Bacinello, better known as Paulinho Cascavel.