A few years ago, a highly respected executive at a leading European club made up his mind on João Félix while watching him play for Benfica. The potential was obvious, but an asking price of around £100m felt steep for a player who was not a certainty to make it at the very highest level.
Speaking to an acquaintance at the game, the executive said he would not be able to justify himself to his bosses if Félix failed to perform. It was better, he explained, to let a club slightly lower down the food chain take the gamble and meet Benfica’s demands. The thinking was calculated like this: either Félix would develop into a more rounded player after leaving Benfica for one of Europe’s top leagues, at which stage the bigger club would feel comfortable that buying him for an even bigger fee would not be a risk or it would turn out that the executive’s instincts about the forward were right all along.
