Arsenal have finally managed to agree a fee with Sporting to sign striker Viktor Gyokeres – but five other teams stand to share a portion of the money too.
After months of intense and protracted negotiations it was reported on Sunday evening that Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta had made a breakthrough over a fee for Gyokeres, who has been identified as the club’s priority centre-forward target.
Gyokeres has played a few cards to expedite that agreement, refusing to turn up for pre-season training at Sporting, ignoring interest from other potential suitors and sacrificing around £2m of his own wages to try and strengthen Arsenal’s bargaining position.
But Hasan Cetinkaya, the 27-year-old’s agent, agreeing to waive a commission of around £6m appears to have been crucial in guaranteeing Sporting enough of the proceeds from the sale, particularly up front.
Gyokeres’ representatives ‘have landed in London’ on Monday to finalise the terms of the deal before sorting a medical, with Arsenal expected to complete another signing imminently.
How much are Arsenal paying for Viktor Gyokeres?
It is widely reported that Arsenal will sign Gyokeres for an initial €63.5m (£54.8m) with another €10m (£8.6m) in add-ons, likely to be contingent on individual performance or team success such as not perennially finishing as Premier League runners-up or winning the Champions League on a different metric to beating Paris Saint-Germain on xG in the semi-final despite being behind for all but four of 180 minutes.
The price is similar to the cost of the reported gentleman’s agreement Gyokeres and his camp felt they had in place to secure his exit this summer, but which Sporting president Frederico Varandas insisted would not be honoured.
“I can guarantee that Viktor Gyokeres will not leave for €60m plus €10m because I never promised that,” he said in June but this, while far below his €100m release clause, should land Sporting a more favourable financial reward with Cetinkaya cut out.
If Arsenal only ever have to pay that fixed initial Gyokeres fee he would be the club’s sixth biggest signing ever; were the Swedish international to activate all those add-ons he would leap above Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Martin Zubimendi into fourth behind Kai Havertz, Nicolas Pepe and Declan Rice.
Which other clubs are due some of the Viktor Gyokeres money?
Cetinkaya officially foregoing his slice of the Gyokeres pie was imperative precisely because so much of the final fee already has to be apportioned elsewhere.
Coventry negotiated a clause entitling them to 15% of any future profit Sporting made in selling Gyokeres when the Sky Blues sanctioned his £20m departure in July 2023.
There were erroneous reports earlier this summer that Sporting had bought out that clause but the Portuguese club only paid a small fee to reduce it to a 10% share of the profits.
Sporting explained that option when they published a document detailing Gyokeres’ move two years ago:
‘In addition, Coventry is entitled to receive the amount corresponding to 15% of the capital gain of future transfer, a percentage that may be reduced to up to 10% by option of Sporting SAD or depending on the partial realisation of the individual and collective objectives mentioned above.’
Yet somehow Brighton are also due a cut of that on one of the few players they were unable to develop and sell for a fortune to Chelsea.
The Seagulls will receive 15% of Coventry’s 10% of £34.8m to £43.4m – the difference between the £20m Sporting paid for Gyokeres and how much they will sell him for.
MORE ARSENAL TRANSFER REACTION
👉 Rodrygo has ‘chosen’ between Arsenal and Liverpool as PL giants ‘willing to offer’ £78m
👉 Madueke to Arsenal reaction proves who has worst and most ‘entitled’ fanbase in the world
Will the Gyokeres money be shared anywhere else?
But Brighton and Frank Lampard’s Championship high-flyers will not be alone in panicking about the bills and big food shop before pay day.
As Coventry owner Doug King said in November: “A large part of that will go to his original club Brighton, everyone seems to think it will go straight in the coffers but it will go down the chain. You need to be bringing them up from your academy to get the full 100 per cent.”
Which brings us to those solidarity contributions which tend to pay for a tenth-division club’s new bibs and training cones.
These payments are made whenever an international transfer is completed for a fee prior to the expiration of a player’s contract, with any club which contributed to the training and education of said player between the ages of 12 and 23 qualifying for compensation.
Our friends over at Transfermarkt are able to calculate those payments which trickle down and split the Gyokeres money further between even more clubs.
It means fourth-tier Swedish side IFK Aspudden-Tellus, who Gyokeres joined aged five and stayed with until he was 14, stand to receive a sizeable sum.
IF Brommapojkarna, famed for their prolific academy system, will benefit the most as Gyokeres was with them from 14 to 19.
Brighton are in line for a little more money after signing Gyokeres at 19 and keeping him until he had turned 23, as are the club who borrowed the forward for the 2019/20 season, FC St Pauli.
Gyokeres also spent around three months on loan to Swansea while contracted to Brighton, meaning the Welsh side could get a nominal fee.
Where exactly is Arsenal’s money for Gyokeres going?
Taking into account those clauses and solidarity payments – and removing Cetinkaya from the equation – it can be estimated where Arsenal’s £54.8m rising to £63.4m will go:
Coventry are due between £2.96m and £3.69m
Brighton are due between £1.35m and £1.6m
IF Brommapojkarna are due between £1.1m and £1.27m
IFK Aspudden-Tellus are due between £550k and £637k
FC St. Pauli are due between £276k and £318k
Once those debts are paid – likely to be in instalments depending on the payment structure Arsenal have negotiated – Sporting should rake in between £48.57m and £55.9m for Gyokeres.
READ NEXT: Twenty biggest transfers in the world in 2025 summer transfer window