Joao Felix: the boy with magic in his boots. That is how he is remembered at Benfica, the club at which his precocious talent was honed and savoured.
It was Felix – then still in braces – who helped the Portuguese giants win the Primeira Liga title in 2019. And it was also Felix who earned Benfica a monstrous €126million transfer windfall two months later. Atletico Madrid were the club to invest that fee in the young forward. It has yet to be repaid.
Perhaps it never can be. Felix wasn't a fully-formed star when he arrived in the Spanish capital but was expected to fill the hole left by Antoine Griezmann. It was too much to place upon the shoulders of a 19-year-old, especially one whose inventive style has always been at odds with the attritional tactical approach of Diego Simeone.
