Sporting star Viktor Gyokeres may not have found the back of the net in the UEFA Champions League match against Arsenal on Tuesday at the José Alvalade Stadium, but the striker still remains in hunt to shatter Lionel Messi’s long-standing record of most goals scored in a single season.

Gyokeres had headed into the Arsenal game on the back of a stellar run, where he scored 24 goals for his Portuguese club in 17 matches this season, which included that hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League match. Not to forget, he also scored 32 goals for Sweden in 23 matches, taking his tally to 56 goals in the ongoing season already, just 17 goals away from matching Messi’s 2011-12 European record of 73 goals for Barcelona.

How does Gyokeres’ record season compare to some all-time greats?

The greatest-ever goalscoring season for a player was more than a decade back, when Messi scripted that feat in just 60 matches across competitions. The next on the list is Germany legend Gerd Muller, who had scored 66 goals for Bayern Munich in the 1972/73 season to match Ferenc Deak, who was first to match that tally for Hungarian side Szentlorinci in 1945-46.

Former England footballer Dixie Dean scored 63 goals in 41 games for Everton in 1927–28, while Portuguese superstar, who had started his career at Sporting, had his best season for Real Madrid in 2014/15, scoring 61 goals.

Gyokeres stands just six goals away from eclipsing Ronaldo and 17 from matching Messi. The 26-year-old has already scored more goals in 17 games than the Argentine managed in that record-scripting 2011/12 season.

Gyokeres has already been scoring at a better rate (a goal every 65 minutes), than what Messi had achieved 12 years back (a goal every 72 minutes), but the latter was also involved in 60 matches that season. For Gyokeres to has as many opportunities to surpass Messi, Sporting needs to go the distance in Portugal’s two domestic cups and the Champions League.