in our hyperconnected world social media lays at the very heart of communication shaping how we interact share and consume information this applies to all sports and as the planet's biggest by some margin football is no exception every League team player coach and even their famili share every moment and this focus on fan engagements has blurred the line between what is personal and private as the game has continued to grow online yet despite this constant visibility some still manag to remain under the radar in a landscape where a club would pay tens of Millions for a
teenager and a 39-year-old can still earn £200 million annually it's crazy to think that a 6'2 goal scoring machine entering his prime can go unnoticed for years Victor AA GES was Europe's best kept secret for some time hi ing out in the blind spots of scouting networks and developing behind the scenes but seems to finally be getting the attention he deserves Strong Quick want to score so yeah I try to attack and go towards the goal as much as I can when I get the [Music] ball born and raised in Stockholm he made the wise
choice of EF drma POA a club to the west of the capital with an incredible Youth Academy boasting the highest count of active youth teams of all ages across the continent averaging .95 goals per game throughout 2 years with the under 19s the first team coach had seen enough and by 2 months into his 17th year the striker had opened his account with three tally marks it was pretty clear this kid was going to be a massive problem for the Defenders of the Swedish third tier bulky and Broad his frame was indicative of a center
half ruling out any physical disadvantage but he was also quick on the turn and Nimble for a big man which made him of use out wide as well as up top dominant in the air as well as in shoulder to shoulder challenges his versatility helped Brahma poinar return to the supera where guz really started picking up speed whether he was curling shots from distance or finding the corners in a one-on-one it was like watching a young Harland in his salsburg days shrugging markers to the floor or just burning past them the young sniper was Unstoppable
once he got going surging with the ball from deeper areas to create after months of goal scoring muts about a 19-year-old swed were entering bigger circles and in September 2017 2 months before the end of their season Brahma POA were hit up by Brighton and HOV albian of the Premier League to arrange a deal in the lasting weeks he boosted his numbers to 13 goals and eight assists with a hat-trick on the final game day as the club were promoted once more to the Top Flight alinan named champions for the first time in their history
it's in England that his story gets confusing never really getting a chance in the Southeast he was limited to their B team for a full year before debuting with the first 11 and that was only in the cups never even setting foot on a Premier League pitch with the seag goals it wasn't like he'd stopped scoring in the reserve games but Chris Hutton wasn't convinced loaning him to FC Zen py for a season in the German second tier those two Brighton years had cost him his place in the national team and put a break on
his steady momentum in hurg he hardly set the world Al light though a handful of goals as a regular starter rebuilt some of the confidence taxed by the English September 2020 saw his short-lived return to the ax scoring once before entering a phase many unsettled footballers go through in their younger years thrown around from Brighton to Swansea where he spent a miserable 3 months then recalled ahead of a winter move to Coventry it was enough to give the 22-year-old Whiplash it was another quiet spell As He adjusted to the West Midlands but though the stats
weren't anything special the Sky Blues saw what retrospectively was obvious give this Nordic strongman time and he'll make it worth the wait for the price of1 million they took him off Brighton's hands gave him a three-year promise and sat back as he ripped up the efl now a permanent Striker purely involved to Ripple the net he was back in that 17 he'd had in his hometown and it clearly gave the swedes some extra power as the frontman of a group that thrives in the chaos of transition his agility powerful running strides and Killer Instincts really
allowed Mark robbins's team to become the most dangerous counterattacking side in the division pouncing on every error when guz smelled blood he didn't wait around charging down Defenders like a lionwood his prey robbing possession and heading for goal making the pitch look tiny the athletic anomaly had stamer for days working endlessly for the team who once they learned his behavior Str strengths and weaknesses they started clicking almost a throwback he was everything you'd want in a Target man readily available at all times and easy to pick out from wide areas his intelligent movement could make
a random Huff in the box look like a de bruyeres find while the premier league has evolved and produces more polished football the championship still holds on to that rosed longball tough English style which came so easily to a man mountain with something to prove and ending the campaign with 17 goals as coventry's top scorer gurz had left everyone baffled at how the 12th best team in the second tier got a hold of a reject this good still only 24 the improvements to make were down to time like his football Instinct tactical knowledge and upping
his conversion rate but whatever happened over the summer of 2022 it wasn't a man that emerged it was a monster from the first game at the stadium of light his shoulders seemed broader feet quicker and shots more forceful then in luten another glimpse of an even scarier Striker who with or without the ball at his feet moved like a locomotive covering 60 yards in a matter of seconds and still saving enough energy for a composed finish on his weak foot this went on all year bullying defenses with sheer physicality bolstered by the confidence that came
with knowing none of these Pros stand a chance amazingly aware of his time and space he dispelled every myth about hulking forwards being one-dimensional or clumsy clearly the sharpest and most alert player for Robbins who depended on his singular talent to carry them up the table all great goal scorers need a signature celebration and it was around this time he found his whether a nod to the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter or steroid super villain Bane it fits his image as the destroyer of defenses by May he'd hit the 20 Mark for the first time
ever while adding another 10 assists to push the team to new heights securing a playoff spot to have a say in the fight for promotion reaching the final at Wembley a fairy tale story came to a sudden end as Luton Town put away the penalty centry couldn't to steal their spot and lock the door behind them on the way to the Prem the bitter truth that every fan had to face was that they had a star way too good for the championship a big fish in a small pond and the inevitable came in July sporting
broke their own transfer record with a 20 million EUR Splash on someone to hoist them back into the title race ready to take on the number nine Lisbon was a major jump from the West Midland and the way of playing Far different in the Premier Liga though in a 343 with top-notch deliveries flying in from Pedro gonalves trinka and Marcus Edwards the quality around him simplified his job instead of having to carry the ball forward himself garez just had to get in the box and answer their crosses his bread and butter which meant that before
long his numbers got more and more absurd a double on his debut was a sound warning to the teams across Portugal of what was coming their way and he didn't disappoint continuing to outmuscle and dominate Center halves it was like watching men versus boys at times able to do whatever he wants and the floodgates opened using his left or right interchangeably it was hard to predict which way he'd go and the aformentioned power mixed with technique meant he could hit it first time from tight angles and catch out the keeper now timing his jumps to
Perfection his headed goal Hall was growing putting away knock on or bullet headers from range thanks to his thicker neck the real strength of gues is that he has no specific trademark goal type he can do it all and it's down to his work ethic and fitness recovering possession in the final third more than anyone else many of the chances he took were all of his own making providing a hatch of assists in a game lost January he's been far from selfish listed in the top 10 for key passes as well everything he does is
intended and assured from dribbling to finishing and there's no luck involved he's become a top European striker in a matter of months converting 10 braces and two hattricks to stretch his total to 43 goals from 50 matches 29 of which came in the league awarding him the B DEA never before had the Lions won all home games in one campaign but with the Swedish influence they'd Managed IT along with a bunch of other club records including winning the most games in a season and accumulating more points than ever before losing only two matches all year
10 points clear of their Arch Rivals this was among Sporting's finest years to date and the Difference Maker was this Hidden Gem now impossible to overlook bouncing back instantly from knee surgery he's bagged eight times in five games so far this season elevating an Echelon and what's scariest about it all is this isn't even him at his best taking more shots than anyone else in Portugal he could feasibly up his numbers into the 60s this year and already averaging two contributions per game it appears he's on that path perhaps it's that he's plying his trade
outside the top five or the in fact he shares a generation with a pair of freaks but for what he's achieved in the last 18 months Victor GES gets nowhere near the agulation you'd expect clocking in his first Champions League minutes this month he'll get a flavor of the grandest stage football has to offer and it'll tell all the uninitiated what they've been missing out on in the wake of the Ronaldo Messi era sometimes we forget what normal should look like and with the eyes fixed on the bnab hyper and the teenage sensation Lin Mal
and the everpresent focus on English footy it's easy to dismiss a star of the so-called lesser leagues but soon enough his will be a name no one mispronounces he can of course he can Victor gares in the UEFA Champions League for sporting he can do no wrong
