Former England defender Rio Ferdinand said of Victor Gyukiris: «I don't think he's the right man. I watched him closely about three times, and I told myself all three times that he wouldn't get such chances in the Premier League».Gyokiris made his first appearance with the London team, after participating as a substitute in the 77th minute of the friendly match that «the Gunners» lost 0-1 to its neighbor Tottenham, Thursday, in Hong Kong, in preparation for the start of next season.
One million pounds sterling.64 years old, from Sporting Lisbon to Arsenal in a deal valued at 27. The Swedish striker, aged
assist. He averaged more than one goal in 26 matches with the Portuguese club, and scored 102 goals in 97 goals scored by Geokeris per match last season. But when his name was linked to Manchester United, Ferdinand said he was not convinced he was a good fit for a team that plays multiple times: "Does he have 6 Premier League titles. The former English international defender, who won the English Premier League title, wondered about the capabilities and abilities that qualify him to score goals, after playing at a higher level physically
However, Björn Hamberg, who was Brighton's assistant manager during the time Geokeris played for the team, said: «He definitely has the physique to play in the Premier League». Arsenal - according to Neil Johnston and Emlyn Begley on the «BBC» website - was one of many major clubs whose name was associated with the former Brighton player after his wonderful performance with Sporting Lisbon over the past two seasons, where he played under the leadership of the current Manchester United coach, Robin Amorim.
In addition to his 39 goals in the Portuguese Premier League in the 2024 - 2025 season, Geokeris contributed to scoring 6 more goals in the Champions League - including a hat-trick against Manchester City. Gyokiris left Brighton without playing a single minute in the Premier League and subsequently became one of the most effective scorers in European stadiums - during two loan spells in the English Premier League with Swansea City and Coventry City, and in Germany with St Pauli.
But how did the other players perform when moving from Portugal to England? How does Gyokiris compare to them?
Strikers coming from Portugal to the English Premier League
There is no doubt that the most successful player to move from the Portuguese Premier League to England is Cristiano Ronaldo, who also came from Sporting Lisbon. £1 million in 12.24 years at the time, playing as a winger, to Manchester United for 18 Ronaldo, who has goals in the league, joined Manchester United in 103 matches - including 292 goals in 118. The Portuguese star continued his brilliance and scored the English Premier League's August 2003 (August). He won three English Premier League titles, a Champions League title, and also won the Ballon d'Or for the best player in one million pounds sterling.80 world before moving to Real Madrid in a then record deal worth
The most brilliant player after that who moved from Portugal to England, also coming from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United, was Bruno Fernandes. The current Manchester United captain has scored 62 goals in 195 Premier League matches, for a total of 98 goals in 290 matches for the club, after moving to «Dream Theater» in January (January) 2020 for a fee of £47 million, rising to £67.7 million after other financial additions and incentives. Between Ronaldo and Fernandez, Nani also moved from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United in 2007, scoring 25 goals in England. Looking at outright strikers, Mexican striker Raul Jimenez has scored 59 Premier League goals for Wolverhampton and Fulham. Jimenez joined Wolverhampton from Benfica for £30 million, a record in the club's history at the time, in 2019 after a successful loan spell.
League match: 176 goals in 179 times in Portugal, scoring 5, but in return, Brazilian player Mario Jardel won the Golden Boot: "His goal average in the 2003 Portuguese Premier League match". Bolton coach Sam Allardyce said when signing Jardell in August (August), the 29th year, that he is unmatched anywhere else in the world. "We found an attacker who would score goals for us regularly." But Jardell, then old, made only seven substitute appearances in the Premier League, scoring only three goals, all of which were in the League Cup.
Later, Allardyce described him as the worst player he had ever coached! Jardel was the first Portuguese Premier League top scorer to move to the Premier League, and Gyukiris was the most recent, but there were three Portuguese Premier League top scorers who took the same step. Benny McCarthy was Porto's top scorer in the 2003–04 season, and two years later joined Blackburn Rovers. In his first season with Blackburn Rovers, the South African striker scored 18 Premier League goals, trailing only two goals behind Golden Boot winner Didier Drogba. McCarthy scored 37 Premier League goals in 109 appearances for Blackburn Rovers, and no goals in 11 appearances for West Ham.
Carlos Vinicius and Darwin Nunez were the other players who recently won the Portuguese Premier League Golden Boot award - both with Benfica - before their goal average decreased significantly after their move to England. Vinicius joined Tottenham as a Premier League player. 53, scoring just eight goals in 2022, then to Fulham permanently in 2020 on loan in £1 million 64 Premier League games since moving to Liverpool for 95 goals in 25 Meanwhile, Nunez scored three years ago.
Will Gyokiris shine in a stronger league?
We will find a list of the usual names. He scored 2025 - 2024 If we take a look at the list of the top scorers in the major European leagues for a season, he scored a goal and led Liverpool to 29 goals in his first season in the Spanish Premier League, while Mohamed Salah scored 31 Kylian Mbappe, the Real Madrid star, scored a goal with Barcelona, one goal ahead of 27 to win the English Premier League title, and Robert Lewandowski finished the season with a goal, although 39 cm, 189 was scored by English international striker Harry Kane with Bayern Munich. As for Geokeris, which is the length of the Portuguese Premier League, it is not classified among the five major leagues in Europe.
So, the question many are asking now is: Will he be able to continue to shine in a stronger league? He is 27 years old and has not yet played in the top five leagues in Europe. Hence Ferdinand's statements that he was unable to perform well in penalty kicks, as he succeeded in 2025-2024 in 2024, with 2025-2024 goals in the 35th season of the English Premier League. It must be noted here that he paid it. There is no doubt that Gyokiris is a brilliant scorer, but will this success against 19 in scoring all the penalty kicks achieve the strong defenses of elite clubs?
Hamberg says: «Obviously there will be fierce competition with Arsenal's attacking players. I think he is determined to shine again, and he clearly realizes that Arsenal will take another step forward. At the same time, you can see during his recent seasons, especially in the Champions League, that he may be more prepared than ever to take on this challenge. He improves every year and maintains his physical fitness, and he is also one of the players who is good at playing inside the penalty area, good at finishing attacks in front of goal, and is distinguished by his strength in offensive transformations and exploiting wide spaces. So, he has diverse abilities and techniques, and I think that's very important in the Premier League».
Geoceris' performance level in England
2021 After failing to reach the required level, Brighton allowed him to join Coventry City for a small sum in a July (July) First Division match with Coventry City. Two years later, he moved to Sporting 19 after a mediocre performance and scoring just three goals in a Serie A match with Coventry City during the 91-goal seasons at £38m after scoring 20.5 for Lisbon. While in Lisbon, Gyokiris reached new levels, and also participated at the international level in the 2023-2022 and 2022-2021 distinguished attacking lineup for the Swedish national team, alongside Alexander Isaac, the Newcastle player, and Dian Kolosevski, the Tottenham player. Gyokiris scored nine goals in six matches for his country, including four goals in one match against Azerbaijan in the 2025 - 2024 European Nations League season
But it wasn't just his goals that caught attention, as Gyokiris is distinguished by his intelligence in movements and his abundant effort on the field, and he has become the subject of admiration for many clubs...
"When Geokeris was with us, we had Glenn Murray who had scored over ten goals the previous season, and we signed Neil Mobay from Brentford," says Hamberg, who has been an assistant to Graham Potter at several clubs, including Brighton. So, Victor was the third or fourth choice, but he was playing with us in the League Cup matches. From our point of view, we were happy that he played this small role and his willingness to develop, improve and take advantage of the opportunities available to him. "But as a person, when Gyokiris thinks about something, he usually gives everything he has to achieve it," he added. He pushed hard to go out on loan, because he fully believed in his ability to perform well if he got the opportunity to participate in matches regularly.
