Erling Haaland starts most matches as the top scorer on the pitch. For Tuesday’s trip to Sporting Lisbon, the Manchester City striker will have to settle for second place.
Haaland has an astonishing 17 goals in 18 appearances for club and country this season, but that is nothing compared to Sporting striker Victor Gjukeres, who has scored 24 goals in 20.
These are impressive numbers from the 26-year-old, who has also scored 45 goals in 43 Portuguese league appearances since moving to Sporting at the start of last season. But what’s even more impressive is that this is the same striker who struggled in the tournament four years ago.
On loan from Brighton, who are tipped to unearth a talented player in Europe, Gyokeris went scoreless in 11 League Two matches for Steve Cooper’s Swansea in the 2020-21 season.
After a promising loan spell at German second division club St. Pauli, it was a disappointment. The Swans had his spell cut short mid-season and he was given another loan to Coventry City.
Three goals in 19 games in the second half of the season sparked debate among Coventry officials: was he good enough to sign permanently or was he not worth the risk? This question seems ridiculous now.
“I think you could have argued both sides, to be honest,” former Coventry assistant manager Adi Viveash told Sky Sports. “You could have said: Is this some kind of gamble?
“He went to Swansea with Steve Cooper on loan at the start of the season. The next time I saw him was when we played them in the Covid year. With all due respect, he never got a kick. Kyle McFadzyan turned him wide.” The game!
“After the loan for the second six months of that season, he was still having the same frustrations with us. He was a completely different player to who he ended up being when he left Coventry. He wasn’t as strong, not as strong. He could have been a little bit worse.” Slightly shove the ball slightly.
Picture: Former Coventry assistant Adi Viveash with Jockeyris
“I didn’t feel like he played the central role well at the time. He still wanted to drift into wide areas. He avoided a little bit of contact, I think, with his back to goal. That’s how it looked.”
The idea that Gyokeris was once a player who was easily cleared of the ball is baffling given his current form. His two goals in the Champions League this season were remarkably similar: a solitary run down the left flank, blocking and passing a defender, then a decisive finish.
So, what happened to that struggling striker, who has suddenly pushed himself to Haaland levels now? When Gyokeris looks back on his career, he will look to Coventry making his loan deal permanent for less than £1m in the summer of 2021 as a springboard for his confidence.
Please use Chrome browser for an easily accessible video player
Take a closer look at Victor Gyukiris’ selection of goals in Coventry’s Championship last season, as the striker is now impressing with Sporting Lisbon.
“It was like you signed a different player,” Viveash recalls. “The next season, he came in confident that he was going to be bought out by a team, and suddenly he was told he was going to be the main guy. And he looked like the main guy.
“He built himself up, obviously worked hard in the off-season in the gym, and the tackles with his back to goal? He started smashing centre-backs in training! That was a real surprise to everyone.” For us to go: “Okay, this kid is interested in work now.”
Three goals in 30 Championship games became 38 goals in 91 games in the next two seasons at Coventry. His 21 goals in League Two in the 2022-23 season not only caught the attention of Sporting, but almost took the Sky Blues to the Premier League. Only defeat to Luton Town in the Championship play-off final negated that fact, and Gyokeris even got a superb assist for Coventry’s equalizer at Wembley.
“You know when someone’s getting good, right?” Viveash says. “When the opposition wants to talk about it. After every match, you go into the manager’s room and Vic was the name that was mentioned.
“I don’t think anyone has seen a striker like him in the tournament. He has improved all aspects of his game.”
Please use Chrome browser for an easily accessible video player
Gyukiris set up Gustavo Hamer’s equalizer for Coventry in the Championship play-off final against Luton.
Coventry were the team that made Gyokeris the central striker we see today. As we saw in the first and last strikes against Estrela Amadora, and similar to his two Champions League goals so far this season, the Swedish striker likes to attack or move from the left wing to get goalscoring opportunities.
“He scored a lot of goals from the left flank that way for St. Pauli, a lot of goals,” recalls Viveash. “When he was playing as a number 9, we wanted him to trust that his teammate would get into that left space and could attack the forward or central areas. In the end, he scored some really good goals.
“So we tried to get him moving left and right, so he kind of drifted along the front three.”
He’s also not just a goalscorer, the 26-year-old has also provided 11 assists and created 74 chances in 43 league appearances for Sporting since joining the club just over a year ago.
But Coventry also prepared him for the expectations of a top club that expects to win. When Jewkeris got good, so did the tournament. Both player and club had to deal with the transition from the underdog team in the league to teams being split into a low block.
“His ability to run and keep running is the thing that sets him apart in the tournament, because strikers in other teams, they can make three or four great strikes, but he can do 12, 13, 14,” says Viveash.
“If you give Vick a half-throw with a high line and you miss the line, you’ll never catch him because he’ll keep running back.
“In the tournament, the defenses started to drop. So he had to get ready to move and then he had to do a lot to score goals. We knew we had a physical machine, and in the end sharpening the work was what we needed.” Create space.
“So I did a lot of work with him in the difficult areas. It took a lot of cajoling for him to understand that and accept it. He’s one of those players that it took a long time for him to see the benefit of that.”
Picture: Former Coventry assistant Adi Viveash with Jockeyris
This is because Jewkeris had his own personality. Firstly, the shy striker at the start of his time at Coventry has become an obsessive goalscorer with a huge drive to succeed.
“Vic loved to have a bag of balls by himself every day, and you had to engage him because he would come out as soon as it got dark,” recalls Viveash. “He was doing a lot of things off the rebound board and finishing. I think he definitely improved his left foot with things like that.
He added: “He will also feel frustrated if he plays three or four matches without scoring a goal. That was a difficult period for him in all seasons, especially the two seasons he played regularly at Coventry.”
But then Coventry’s ego began to develop as the goals kept flying. The Swedish striker felt he was excelling at Coventry and can now be said to be doing the same at Sporting.
“He snored a lot,” adds the former Coventry assistant coach. “He and I, we had a really interesting working relationship, because I’m a very passionate, demanding coach, and he’s a very driven, demanding personality.
Photo: Jewkeres became difficult to work with towards the end of his time at Coventry, according to Viveash
“Vic wanted to do training sessions to be the way Vic wanted to work. He wanted to finish work by a certain time, he wanted to do this, he wanted to do that. He had a strong personality, a strong character and when I get the two of you like that, then you have to To find a way to communicate.
“And you would fight sometimes, really for each other’s benefit, but he definitely understood his value over time. He was almost unplayable in the tournament in a lot of those matches.”
“But at the end of that season, there were frustrations and things around him as an individual, maybe at that time, whether his head was turned.
“He’s become very difficult. And I think he’ll be honest about that. He’s become very difficult to work with in terms of trying to coach every day.”
Geukeris eventually got his move despite Coventry “doing everything they could” to keep hold of him, according to Viveash. “He will never play in the tournament again,” adds the assistant president. The striker’s last match for the club was the Championship qualifier final loss to Luton.
That took him to Sporting, then the Champions League, then Tuesday’s match with Premier League champions Manchester City.
Please use Chrome browser for an easily accessible video player
New Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has dismissed speculation that he will try to sign any of Sporting Lisbon’s players in January, including star striker Victor Djukeris.
“It will be interesting because you will be playing against the elite of the elite and it will be interesting how he will play against those type of midfielders,” says Viveash.
“But if City play the way they do, they’re great, but if they leave 1v1 behind, it’ll be interesting. How far have they come against the best?
“But he definitely has the strength, the running ability and the confidence that a striker should have to be a No. 9 in the Premier League, and at the top clubs. He’s certainly got all that, and it looks like he’s getting the goals.”
Tuesday’s Champions League match in Lisbon looks like a big stage for Geocris. Can he really be compared to Haaland? If so, a move away from Sporting looks likely, with City even a possible destination.
Remember, remember November 5th. The day Haaland met his match?
