'Inexplicable' - Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres dragged into bitter Ballon d'Or row

Arsenal frontman Viktor Gyokeres claimed the prestigious Gerd Muller Trophy at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris last night. The prize, previously known as the Striker of the Year or Best Striker Award, recognises both club and international goals.

The 27-year-old Gunners striker hit the back of the net 54 times in 52 appearances last term before sealing his £63.5million switch to the Emirates Stadium in August. But the result has not been universally popular, particularly in Spain where there has been further outrage in light of last year's ceremony when Vinicius Jr missed out on the Ballon d'Or and Real Madrid boycotted the awards altogether.

Spanish newspaper AS' editor-in-chief Tomas Roncero name-dropped Gyokeres when launching an astonishing attack on France Football, who host the red carpet gala. Roncero said: "Everything pointed to Mariona Caldentey, the Arsenal star who was brilliant when the team won the Champions League, winning. Aitana Bonmati, who is also very good but did not have her best season in Barça or Spain, however, received the award again.

"This favouritism towards Barca is mixed with a kind of phobic bias towards Real Madrid, which is also reflected in the awarding of the Gerd Muller Trophy for the year's top scorer. Inexplicably, they gave the award to Gyokeres, now at Arsenal and formerly at Sporting, despite the brilliant Kylian Mbappe winning the Golden Shoe with 31 goals in La Liga and 44 goals overall."

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The European Golden Shoe is a separate award to the Gerd Muller Trophy and the scoring system is different. That benefitted Gyokeres, who also finished 15th in the Ballon d'Or rankings, this term. Mbappe claimed the Golden Shoe after scoring 31 league goals for Real Madrid last season.

While Gyokeres hit 39 goals as Sporting lifted the Primeira Liga title, each goal was worth less in the point-scoring system. La Liga and Premier League goals are multiplied by two while Primeira Liga goals are multiplied by 1.5 because it's claimed there is weaker opposition within the division.

Once the final calculations had been completed, Mbappe's 31 goals were worth 62 points while Gyokeres' 39 goals were worth 58.5 points. Roncero claims Mbappe was robbed of the Gerd Muller Trophy, adding: "They stole the award from Vinicius a year ago, after he had won everything for his club and done so with decisive individual performances. It is understandable that Real Madrid have distanced themselves from these awards."

Real Madrid snubbed the gala for the second successive season as Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele claimed the Ballon d'Or. Gyokeres told CBS Sport after picking up his award in France: "Yes it's a difficult feeling, scoring is one thing in the moment, it's a feeling that is difficult to describe because it's so great. But this means a lot and feels great of course in a different way, so yeah it's amazing."