Viktor Gyokeres just cannot stop scoring. Not that he would want to.
The Sporting striker goes into Tuesday’s Champions League match against Arsenal with a remarkable 24 goals in 17 club games this season – including a hat-trick against Manchester City.
Throw in Sweden games too and it is 32 goals in 23 matches.
It seems likely this will be his final season at Sporting, with the 26-year-old former Brighton, Swansea and Coventry player likely to attract many of Europe’s top teams.
But how good could this season end up being? He is currently on course to break Lionel Messi’s European record of 73 goals in 2011-12.
BBC Sport looks at how plausible that is, and what other record goal tallies he could reach.
The greatest goalscoring season by a club player in European football is Messi’s 73 goals for Barcelona in 60 games in all competitions.
Next is the 66 scored by Gerd Muller for Bayern Munich in 1972-73 and Ferenc Deak for Hungarian side Szentlorinci in 1945-46.
Dixie Dean hit 63 goals in just 41 games for Everton in 1927–28.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s best season was the 61 he hit for Real Madrid in 2014-15.
Glentoran celebrate the 96 goals in 47 games Fred Roberts netted in 1930-31, although that includes minor competitions too.
The record for a Portuguese league player is Mario Jardel’s 55 – which he remarkably managed for two different teams in the space of three seasons.
The Brazilian, who went on to have a spell at Bolton, hit that total for Porto in 1999-2000 and Sporting in 2001-02.
Gyokeres has scored more goals after 17 games than Messi managed in his record-breaking season – although he is below the figures of Muller and Dean.
His fellow Scandinavian Erling Haaland’s best total to date is the 52 he managed for Manchester City in 2022-23.
Gyokeres has netted 24 goals in 17 Sporting games this season.
Messi had scored 22 goals after the same amount of Barca games in 2011-12.
Spread over the course of the season, Sporting’s Swede is netting a goal every 65 minutes compared to Messi’s one every 72 then.
Their Champions League rates are fairly even with Messi scoring 14 goals in 11 games – to Gyokeres’ five goals in four matches this season.
For Gyokeres to play the 60 games that Messi managed that season, Sporting would have to go all the way in Portugal’s two domestic cups and the Champions League.
If their Champions League form drops, and they finish between ninth and 24th, they would play an additional two games in a play-off round – so that would give him a maximum of 62.
But all that relies on Gyokeres playing every game for Sporting.
Messi missed four games for Barcelona in 2011-12. Barcelona, who played in the Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup that season too, played in every game possible – except the Champions League final, losing at the last-four stage.
Gyokeres has scored nine goals in six Nations League games for Sweden too – with another four games to come this season.
Messi netted nine goals in nine games for Argentina in 2011-12.
Gyokeres’ talent has been obvious for some time but his goalscoring improves each season.
He seems on course to beat last season’s 43 goals for Sporting. His two full seasons at Coventry yielded 18 and 22 goals.
Just four seasons ago he scored a combined five goals for parent club Brighton and Championship loan sides Swansea and Coventry.
Messi was on an upwards trajectory too (albeit starting from a higher point) going into his record season for Barcelona – having netted 16, 38, 47 and 53 in his previous four campaigns.
Given Gyokeres’ success, will we be writing a similar article about a current Championship player four years from now…?
