Atletico Madrid CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin has confirmed that Joao Felix wants to quit the team, therefore it appears that the Portuguese player is on his way out of Atletico Madrid.
Gil Marin is in Doha for tomorrow's La Liga Assembly, which Real Madrid and Barcelona have both decided to abstain from. The Atletico CEO explained to AS that Felix, 23, wanted to leave the team because of a strained relationship between him and manager Diego Simeone.
“He is the biggest transfer that the club has made. I think he can play at the highest level in the world, but for the reasons that are not worth saying now, the relationship between the coach and him is not good. Neither is his motivation. The reasonable thing is to think that he will leave. Although I would love him to stay here, he doesn’t want to remain at the club.”
Felix joined Atletico for €126m from Benfica in 2019, becoming the club’s record signing. Despite this, he has generally struggled for form at the club, having scored just 24 league goals in 94 appearances.
According to sources, Los Rojiblancos have established an asking price of €140 million for Felix in response to interest from many elite European clubs, including FC Barcelona.
Joao Felix's transfer to Barcelona is the subject of ongoing negotiations with Atletico Madrid.
That's according to Okdiario's chief pundit Eduardo Inda, speaking on El Chiringuito.
Inda said, "Barça wants to lock Joao Felix and there is talk of an option of a loan with mandatory purchase in 18 months.
"(Agent Jorge) Mendes is working on it because he has 25% of the player and is interested in moving him. This winter market is different because there is a World Cup and the market is radically different.
"In this winter market Joao Felix will move. It is an untenable situation. He has played very little and his situation with Cholo (Simeone) is unsustainable. Barça, Bayern, City and United want it.
"Joao Felix has been at Atletico since 2019 and has never been happy, ever. He has always been second or third choice for Simeone”
FC Barcelona’s President, Joan Laporta, has already expressed the admiration he has for the Portuguese international and it would be intriguing to see if the Catalan based club would be able to pull off the transfer despite the enormous slapped fee.