Arsenal have triggered the first of Viktor Gyokeres’ add-on payments to Sporting CP, with more to come before the season ends.
Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres for an initial €63.5m last summer, but Sporting CP secured a further €10m in add-ons linked to individual and team achievements.
Ryan Taylor reports for Football.London that those add-ons included a fee of €1.25m due every 20 games that Gyokeres plays 45 minutes or more, up to a limit of €5m.
Gyokeres has played 23 times for Arsenal, but his appearance against Bournemouth was the 20th time he’d played 45 minutes or more in an Arsenal match. He only made brief substitute appearances in the games against Chelsea, Brentford, and Port Vale.
As a result, the first of Gyokeres’ add-ons have now been triggered, and Arsenal will need to send €1.25m to Sporting, bringing the total fee so far to €64.75m (£56.24m).
As mentioned, the appearance add-ons make up half of the potential €10m add-on payments. The other bonuses are related to Gyokeres’ goal contributions and Arsenal’s Champions League League Phase participation.
Arsenal will owe €0.5m every time Gyokeres hits 20 goal contributions (up to a limit of €1m), and €1m every time Arsenal qualify for the League Phase of the Champions League (up to a limit of €4m).
At present, Gyokeres has seven goals and no assists for Arsenal, meaning he still needs another 13 for his first goal contribution payment to be triggered.
But the striker is likely to make another 20 appearances this season, and Arsenal are likely to qualify for the Champions League. So by the end of 2025/26, the Gunners are likely to owe at least another €2.25m.
This isn’t news to anyone at Arsenal. The club will be well aware of their commitment, and it absolutely would have been expected that Gyokeres would make at least 20 appearances of 45 minutes or more this season, and that the Gunners would qualify for the Champions League.
The hope is that there will be some trophies to justify the expenditure in 2026.