FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are currently in talks over a deal for the Portuguese forward Joao Felix, reported Sport on Friday.
The Catalan club wants to sign the 23-year-old on a season-long deal as they are in need of an attacker who can score goals while also creating opportunities for other players on the pitch.
With the departure of Ousmane Dembele to Paris Saint Germain, the arrival of the Portuguese seems inevitable.
However, there are some complications in the deal as Barca know that they will have to pay 100% of the player’s salary as well as the loan fee, although they have not yet agreed to these conditions but a deal will go through if they up their offer.
Felix has had a difficult time adjusting to Diego Simeone’s Atletico as he could only have 52 goal contributions in 131 games for the Madrid side.
He also failed to leave his mark at Chelsea, where he spent one season on a loan deal, as he could only score four goals in 20 matches.
Felix to Barca is not just complicated due to financial aspects, but Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta and head coach Xavi Hernandez are not on the same page as well.
While Laporta has publicly stated that he wants to bring Felix, Xavi is against the signing.
Xavi acknowledges Felix’s attacking qualities but he does not like his defensive work-rate.
Xavi wants his team to defend with all the players in transition and that is one of the reasons why Ansu Fati often fails to make it to the starting XI because he is not that active defensively.
Lack of defensive input was one of the biggest reasons why Felix failed to become a success at Atletico despite the club paying a record fee of €126 million for him.
However, as there are not many options available to sign, it seems that Xavi will have to settle for the Portuguese.
