Former Chelsea player Joao Felix has made a number of painful sacrifices to secure his transfer to FC Barcelona. The player marked his wages down from $12.9 million to $6.45 million at Atletico Madrid and elongated his contract from 2027 to 2029, which aided the Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues of the club.
The La Liga club Barcelona will pay only a mere $428.35K to Joao Felix for this season. The rest of his salary will be covered by Atletico Madrid. The player turned down several gigantic clubs in the English Premier League. The clubs that approached the player were Liverpool, Manchester United, and Aston Villa.
âť—JoĂŁo FĂ©lix made several sacrifices to be able to arrive at Barcelona.
He reduced his salary at Atleti from €12m gross to €6m gross and extended it from 2027 to 2029. This helps a lot with amortization and FFP.
Barça will only pay Félix €400,000 this season, something which… pic.twitter.com/B3gMo1SE5W
— Barça Buzz (@Barca_Buzz) September 5, 2023
Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal also went for the player but was snubbed by the Portuguese. Felix joined Barcelona on the deadline day on a loan deal from their rival club Atletico Madrid. The player made his debut for Barca against Osasuna. The Portuguese came off the bench as a substitute. Barca went on to win the match 2-1. Alongside the twenty-nine-year-old, his national teammate and former Manchester City star Joa Cancelo also made his debut.
Barcelona manager Xavier Hernandez inflicted that the new players bring solutions to the team, but there is still room for improvement. After Felix’s debut, Xavi ensured that the player could be used in any of his attacking positions. Xavi further said, “I see him as both the striker and the left winger. I like his attitude a lot, and it’s good for my team”. The manager further added, “The player is versatile and gives us a lot of options which will help us going forward”.
Contract and salary details of Joao Felix at Chelsea
Chelsea, a Premier League club, signed the Portuguese star in January 2023 on a six-month loan deal from Atletico Madrid. The loan fee was reported to be around $12.5 million. However, the Londoners also agreed to pay the Portuguese’s $312.6K weekly wages. It brought the total figure of his contract at the club to $20.1 million.
However, things didn’t work out for the forwards at the Blues. Although there were some good performances from him during his loan spell, the majority of them were overshadowed by Chelsea’s poor twelfth-place finish. The forward played sixteen league matches for Chelsea, scoring four goals. Felix also played four UEFA Champions League matches for the London-based side, in which no goals or assists were registered by him.