Arsenal star Viktor Gyokeres is due to face his former club Sporting Lisbon in the quarter-finals of the Champions League this week
Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres is due to face former club Sporting on Tuesday(Image: Daniel Weir/Sports Press Photo/Shutterstock)
The quarter-finals of the Champions League have thrown up a significant reunion as Arsenal prepare to take on Sporting Lisbon. The Gunners signed striker Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting over the summer and the Swedish striker will return to Estadio Jose Alvalade for the first time as a visiting player on Tuesday.
Gyokeres scored 97 goals in just 102 appearances for Sporting, helping the team win back-to-back Primeira Liga titles. His time in England has been hit-and-miss so far but he has scored 17 times in all competitions for Arsenal, including four goals in eight Champions League outings.
The Gunners are desperate for a result in Portugal after back-to-back defeats threatened to derail their season. Mikel Arteta watched his team lose the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City before they suffered a shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Southampton.
Gyokeres, who scored in that Southampton defeat, is believed to have made a number of sacrifices to realise his Arsenal dream. Here, Mirror Football takes a closer look at the Sweden star.
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Net worth and ‘sacrifice’
In July, talkSPORT reported that Gyokeres was in line to make £200,000 per week at Arsenal. Around the same time, Portuguese publication Record suggested the Swede had agreed to sacrifice a portion of his wages to allow Arsenal to meet Sporting’s transfer fee demands, indicating he might initially have been in line for an even higher pay packet.
The weekly wage is a marginal increase from the £180k per week he was reported to be making in Portugal. This has prompted a few estimates on his net worth, which is believed to be in the region of £8million, though it’s worth recognising his five-year Arsenal deal is worth more than £50m in total.
Despite making sacrifices when it came to his Arsenal wages. Gyokeres is still one of the club’s highest earners. According to Spotteronly five team-mates are earning a higher wage, led by Kai Havertz on £280,000 per week.
‘Split’ with WAG
During his time in Portugal, Gyokeres was in a relationship with Ines Aguiar, an actress and influencer. Aguiar, who has featured in a number of Portuguese films and TV shows, had been seeing the footballer for around a year before the pair reportedly split in the summer of 2025.
Some Arsenal supporters referenced the apparent break-up in a terrace chant. However, if the pair did indeed split, they are now believed to have reconciled.
In March, Aguiar shared a selection of photos and videos with the caption ‘Somewhere in a very recent past’. One of the videos appears to have been taken at Mansfield Town’s stadium, where Gyokeres and Arsenal played in the FA Cup fifth round.
Strike and warning
Gyokeres completed his move to Arsenal on July 26, 2025. He had earlier been linked with Premier League rivals Manchester United – at the time managed by former Sporting boss Ruben Amorim – but the move to North London came after he went on strike.
The striker was reported to have refused to report to Sporting training around a fortnight before the eventual move. Club president Frederico Varandas took a hard line, slapping the player with fines and a warning over his future conduct.
“We’re calm,” Varandas told Portuguese news agency Lusa, as translated by ESPN. “Everything can be solved with the closure of the market, a hefty fine and an apology to the group. If they don’t want to pay Viktor’s fair market value, we’ll be very comfortable with that for the next three years.
“If the geniuses who are devising this strategy think that this puts pressure on me to make it easier for him to leave, not only are they completely wrong, but they are also making it more complicated for the player to leave. No one is above the interests of the club. Whoever they are.”
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