Chelsea forced to delete Joao Felix transfer announcement after embarrassing gaffe called out by fans
CHELSEA were forced to delete their Joao Felix transfer announcement as it contained an embarrassing mistake.
The 23-year-old arrives on loan from Atletico Madrid until the end of the season and the Blues proudly unveiled their new man.
However, fans noticed an error that resulted in Chelsea’s official Twitter account having to delete the initial post and re-write it, although it had already been seen by thousands.
The announcement showed Felix in a blue shirt for the first time and the upload welcomed “the artist” to Stamford Bridge.
They put a hashtag with it that read: “#HolaFelix”
The word ‘Hola’ means hello in Spanish, but Felix is Portuguese and they don’t speak the language of their neighbouring country.
Chelsea should’ve dropped the ‘H’ as the Portuguese for hello is ‘Olá’.
Fans picked up on the mistake, one said: “He’s Portuguese, not Spanish, you numbskulls. What is that hashtag?”
A second realised the gaffe: “‘Hola’ is Spanish, Joao Felix is Portuguese…”
One joked in reference to Jose Mourinho: “You’d think that a club whose most successful manager was Portuguese would know the difference.”
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Felix joins Graham Potter’s side for a loan fee of £10million, the deal does not contain an option for Chelsea to make the switch permanent.
The player has extended his contract at Atletico for an extra year, meaning his deal now runs until 2027 at the LaLiga side.
The former Benfica star was supposedly on the wishlist of both Arsenal and Manchester United this month but snubbed them for the West Londoners.
Felix is hoping to rejuvenate his career after a tough year under Diego Simeone where he has started only 44 per cent of league games.
He joined Atleti back in 2019 for a massive £112million but he has failed to meet his potential, netting 34 times in 131 games.