Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix is likely to leave the club sooner or later, and Barcelona are working hard to ensure they are his destination.
The Portuguese has also given up his house in Madrid, and if he does not end up at Barcelona, Felix has a back-up plan to leave after the transfer window slams shut.
It appears that Barcelona will do what they can in order to ensure that he does arrive though. Fabrizio Romano reports that Barcelona are working hard to fit a deal into their salary limit. It is not yet clear whether Atletico will lower their demands, and accept simply the payment of his salary, or whether they will continue to ask for the fee to cover his €15m ammortisation for the year.
Barcelona are prepared to activate the ‘operation João Félix’ in the next 48h — board working to find solution to make it happen with FFP 🚨🔵🔴 #FCB
João, only waiting for Barça since that interview in July.
He’d only consider other clubs or Saudi if Barça deal collapses. pic.twitter.com/UGytt0W9eB
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 30, 2023
At any rate, Gerard Romero has explained that the staff at Barcelona believe that a deal will be struck somehow, and are expecting Felix to be with them in September.
Meanwhile Joaquim Piera of Sport reports that the Blaugrana were still looking at ways of bringing Vitor Roque to the club ahead of time, but that option has been discarded now, and his arrival is much more likely in January. The upshot being that Barcelona will focus their efforts on bringing in Felix.
🚨 Everything indicates that BOTH João Cancelo and João Félix will join Barcelona. @joaquimpiera 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/Fa7c8p54KK
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 30, 2023
It seems clear that the deal to bring Felix in is an emotional and business deal rather than one motivated by technical and tactical need. Laporta has publicly declared his admiration for Felix in the past, while Agent Jorge Mendes is desperate to move him out of Atletico Madrid. He has close links with Barcelona and Laporta, with a number of his clients still playing in Catalonia.
In terms of his football, Felix has shown an inability to track back and defend, meaning as part of Xavi Hernandez’s preferred 4-3-3, he would not be a natural fit. Equally if he moves inside a little, perhaps in the same way Xavi has been using, Felix has not shown the work-rate the likes of Gavi or Pedri have in order to make sense of the formation.
