Chelsea have reportedly reached a verbal agreement to sign Joao Felix on a loan deal from Atletico Madrid until the end of the season.
Felix, 23, has started just seven of Atleti’s 16 La Liga matches this campaign and has fallen out of favour entirely under boss Diego Simeone, despite finding the net four times in his limited game time. Manchester United had been linked with a move for the former Benfica ace while Arsenal were also monitoring his situation.
Last month, the Portugal international had instructed his agent Jorge Mendes to find him a new club in January and Atletico Madrid’s CEO, Miguel Angel Gil Marin, had admitted that the club’s record signing could be moved on this month.
A report in The Athletic details that Chelsea have swooped ahead of their rivals and agreed to pay Atletico a fee of €11million (£9.68m) to sign Felix on a loan deal that will last until the end of the current campaign. The Blues will also cover the forward’s wages over that time period.
Felix will be the fourth arrival at Stamford Bridge in the January transfer window after Chelsea secured deals to sign defender Benoit Badoishile from Monaco, Molde striker David Fofana and Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama. The four deals come in at a transfer outlay of £74million.
As exclusively reported by Mirror Football last week, Shakhtar Donetsk star Mykhaylo Mudryk remains on Chelsea’s radar. The Blues have held talks with the Ukrainian club over the past week and they are keen on rivalling Arsenal’s interest in the 21-year-old.
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Felix joined the Spanish giants from Benfica in the summer of 2019 for a club-record £108million after enjoying a breakthrough season in Lisbon, bagging 20 goals and established himself as one of the hottest properties in European football.
However, he has failed to replicate that form in the Spanish capital and he has never become a regular starter for Simeone’s side throughout his three-and-a-half years at the club. He has never scored more than 10 goals in any individual campaign.
This season has seen relations between the forward and boss Simeone deteriorate as Atletico continue to struggle for form. Felix has often cut a frustrated figure while watching on from the substitutes’ bench.
Chelsea are continuing their heavy investment under new owner Todd Boehly, whose first transfer window saw over £250million spent in transfer fees as Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Carney Chukwuemeka and Wesley Fofana were among the arrivals.
