Why Gyökeres loves to keep the game guessing

Arsenal's new forward arrives with a reputation for goals and also mystery around his trademark celebration

- David Hytner

Every goalscorer needs a trademark celebration and the one Viktor Gyökeres has shown over the past few years has 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, Gunners fans 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 Bane, the character played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises film: "No one cared who I was till I put on the mask."

Is it Gyökeres's way of making a point to the doubters? "No," he told reporters in 2023 after a Sweden game. "That's a good guess but you're wrong. You can have another guess next time you interview me."

Why the secrecy, Viktor? "I don't know. It's fun when you guess wrong so I'll keep doing it."

Seriously, though, it has to be to silence the critics? "No, it's not that, either. Now you've had two guesses and you have to stop. You can say it right once but I'll say it was wrong."

Gyökeres's manager at Coventry, Mark Robins, was once asked to explain it. "I know what it means. Has he not told you? I won't be revealing it then." And it is fair to say Gyökeres stirred the pot when he captioned an Instagram post in June last year with a virtual re-quote of Hardy/Bane: "Nobody cared until I put on the mask."