Everton were one of the sides in the fight for striker Viktor Gyökeres this summer before he ended up at Sporting Club de Portugal.
That’s according to A Bola, who cover the player today and comments from manager Ruben Amorim about how they ended up luring him to Portugal.
Gyökeres was part of a summer long transfer saga after it became apparent he would be leaving Coventry City after they failed to gain promotion to the Premier League.
He had a number of Premier League clubs interested in him, including Everton, who were desperate to add to their forward line.
He eventually ended up going to Portugal, though, joining Sporting in a €20m deal as they moved quickly and made him their most expensive signing ever.
“Not everyone was sleeping, he really wanted to come to Sporting,” he said.
“We saw the proposals, (Hugo) Viana showed me the proposals that the player had. He understood the project, he is a very ambitious player and the clubs he had were probably not the ones he wants to go to in the Premier League.”
A Bola then add to that, explaining that the Swede ‘dreams of playing for a top club’ in England but the ones that approached him weren’t in that bracket.
Thus, during the conversations he had with the Lions he came to realise that they were a better team to join in the hope of joining that bigger club down the line.
That’s because they are already a big club that fights for the title, in a league that regularly exports players to top teams in England. The pathway is there, rather than at a ‘more modest club’ in the Premier League.
That’s why Everton ended up missing out and with Gyökeres now starring in Portugal, it’s a decision he seems unlikely to be thinking twice about.
