\n<\/p>\n
Goalscoring is Gyokeres’ most obvious attribute, and there is no doubt he has been a goal machine in Portugal.<\/p>\n
His 39 goals ranked as the most in Europe’s top 10 leagues last season, and he scored at least eight more than any other player.<\/p>\n
It put him in an elite group – the only other players in the past 20 years to have scored at least 39 goals in a season in one of Europe’s top 10 leagues are Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suarez.<\/p>\n
Twelve of Gyokeres’ Primeira Liga goals were penalties, but his total of 27 non-penalty goals was still three more than anyone else. He averaged 4.5 shots per 90 minutes, while Jesus had 3.0 and Havertz 2.6 in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
He also had a mammoth 327 touches in the opposition box and appeared to adopt a ‘shoot on sight’ policy with 139 efforts on goal – effectively one every 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
His accuracy was even more impressive.<\/p>\n
The Swede’s shot-conversion rate (excluding blocked shots and penalties) of 27.3% was better than Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah (21.1%), Manchester City striker Erling Haaland (21.6%) and Newcastle centre-forward Isak (26.4%).<\/p>\n
Indeed only Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood had a better conversion rate in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Gyokeres also scored nine goals in six games for his country – including four in one match against Azerbaijan – in the 2024-25 Nations League, finishing the tournament as top scorer.<\/p>\n
The question is whether Gyokeres can be quite so prolific in a stronger league. He has now turned 27 and is still to play a single game in Europe’s top five divisions.<\/p>\n