FlashFocus: How Viktor Gyokeres put on the mask and climbed to the top of the world
Viktor Gyokeres scoring goals can't exactly be considered a surprise. For anyone who paid the slightest attention to the Portuguese league last season, the Swede, who had arrived from lowly Coventry City, proved to be a dominating force, with 43 goals and 14 assists in 50 games, helping Sporting to claim the Portuguese title.
A good record, but few imagined he could improve on it. Recovering from knee surgery over the summer, the man in the mask - the celebration that aims to invoke Bane and has already become a worldwide phenomenon - came back even hungrier and better - much better.
In 11 competitive games this season (eight for Sporting, three for Sweden), he has scored 14 goals (11 for his club, three for his national team) and added five assists. If we look exclusively at the Portuguese league, he has 10 goals in seven games. In other words, of the 18 teams in the competition, only Sporting (22), FC Porto and Benfica (12 each) have scored more goals than the Swedish striker himself.
It's the best start by a Sporting striker in the 21st century, and it's 35 years since a player scored so many goals in his first six Liga Portugal games. At the time, Mats Magnusson, also Swedish and wearing the Benfica shirt, scored 11 goals in his first six matches in 1989/90.
Top of the world
The numbers are impressive, no doubt about it, but there's always someone more sceptical who tends to point out that Gyokeres is doing it in a reality below the top. After all, we're only talking about the seventh-best European league, according to the UEFA rankings, and a player who didn't make a name for himself at Brighton, Swansea or St. Pauli when he left Brommapojkarna. But if we extrapolate the sample to a worldwide reality, the Swedish goalscorer is still at the top.
Looking at the calendar year 2024 - which still has three full months of football to play - nobody has scored more than Gyokeres. He has 40 goals in 41 games - an average of practically one goal per game.
Erling Haaland (36 in 34 games), Harry Kane (35 in 40 games), Kylian Mbappe (31 in 45 games), Robert Lewandowski (25 in 43 games) and Cristiano Ronaldo (29 in 35 games) are all behind the Swedish striker.
The mask
There are few players we recognise as having an iconic celebration, the kind that children tend to emulate in the playground. Cristiano Ronaldo's 'Siu', Cole Palmer's 'cold' celebration, or Nani's backflips (this one is perhaps more difficult to imitate). Gyokeres has also made it into this category.
With both hands intertwined, he hides his face and leaves only his eyes visible. For a year he left everyone wondering what it meant. Was it related to the famous Hannibal Lecter mask? The question was asked each time he was put in front of journalists.
His fame grew and he travelled from Lisbon to the rest of the world. From the pitch (where Flashscore saw little children celebrating like this at the club where it all began for Gyokeres) to the athletics tracks, and even tatami mats; from Sporting to their rivals; from footballers to athletes from other sports, everyone now celebrates success with two hands intertwined.
A tribute by Gyokeres to Bane - the DC Comics villain created to torment Batman. Using his strength, he managed to be the only one to defeat the famous superhero, just as Gyokeres uses his strength and speed to torment defences in Portugal and beyond.
"Nobody cared about me until I put on the mask," explains Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. And since Gyokeres put on the mask, he is all anyone talks about.