How close did Leeds United come to signing £83.5m striker Viktor Gyokeres after Manchester City hat-trick

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Viktor Gyokeres’ rise up the footballing ladder has been immense, scoring goal after goal in the green and white of Sporting Lisbon after his move from Coventry City.

The Sweden international initially joined Coventry from Brighton on loan in 2020, before a move was then turned permanent in 2021 for £1m. He went on to have a hand in 60 goals in 117 games for Coventry.

That earned Gyokeres a move to Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2023 and the rest is history. His form under new Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has been quite stupendous since his arrival.

On Tuesday night, he took his tally to 67 goals in only his 66th game for Sporting. Gyokeres nabbed a hat-trick against Manchester City as Amorim delighted fans of his new club with a brilliant 4-1 Sporting win.

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Just how close did Leeds come to signing Viktor Gyokeres?

Gyokeres is now being linked with Europe’s best clubs, and has an exit clause worth a whopping £83.5m. Given his form at Sporting, in which he has 23 goals in 17 games this season, that fee must be paid.

Back in January 2023, Leeds signed Georginio Rutter. But they had eyes on Gyokeres, with Leeds scouts in attendance to watch Gyokeres for Coventry. Leeds were even leading Everton for Gyokeres’ signing.

Leeds were willing to spend £14m to sign Gyokeres, but were told that they needed to splash £18m on the centre-forward. Instead, Leeds chose to throw an initial £25m on Rutter and Gyokeres joined Sporting.

Just £4m more, and Leeds could have signed Gyokeres

At that time, signing Gyokeres would have surely made more of an impact than Rutter did in the Premier League and perhaps, helped keep Leeds in the Premier League. But Rutter flopped, and Leeds went down.

Not many could have predicted Gyokerres’ success in Portugal. Sporting was the perfect move for him, it has got the best out of him and a struggling Leeds side may not have allowed him to reach such heights.

But for a cheaper fee at just £18m than the £25m Leeds spent on Rutter initially, in hindsight, signing Gyokeres would have been the much better move and might have even keeped Leeds in the top tier.