Arsenal’s soon-to-be hotshot arrives with a reputation for goals but also mystery around his iconic celebration
E
very goalscorer needs a trademark celebration and the one Viktor Gyökeres has shown off over the past few years has certainly increased its reach of late – fingers interlocked, thumbs pushed up, a mask formed across his mouth and nose.
As Gyökeres’s transfer from Sporting to Arsenal has edged along, fans of the London club became increasingly desperate for clues. They were convinced they spotted one when the defender, Riccardo Calafiori, was pictured at their kit launch with the shirt pulled up towards his eyes; mask-style. And then there was Myles Lewis-Skelly, another of their defenders, looking at a Gyökeres-to-Arsenal story on his phone and copying the gesture.
What does it mean? There is a theory that it owes its inspiration to a line from the Tom Hardy character, Bane, in The Dark Knight Rises film. “No-one cared who I was till I put on the mask,” he says. Is it Gyökeres’s way of making a point to the doubters – and there have been a few of those along what has been an unconventional career path?
