ATLETICO MADRID’S asking price to make Joao Felix’s loan to Chelsea permanent has reportedly been set.
Felix swapped the Wanda Metropolitano for Stamford Bridge during the January window, with the costs of the loan fee alone being a cool £10million.
However, with Atletico Madrid facing the ignominy of failing to qualify for the Champions League, their finances are set to be take a huge blow which will also see them be forced to lose a number of their highest-earning stars.
This is where Felix comes in. The Portuguese ace’s future at the club was far from certain when he left on loan given his relationship with current under-fire boss Diego Simeone.
Indeed, there is a clause in the loan deal which can make a full transfer possible, though no set fee is agreed.
And if he performs well throughout the remainder of his loan spell, he could seal a full transfer to Graham Potter’s side in the summer.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Atletico are more than happy to let Felix go if their price tag is met.
But meeting their demands will mean Chelsea must fork out a British transfer record of £124.5m, which would also see Atletico turn a profit on him after splashing £115m to get him from Benfica in 2019.
The club already set a new bar for both a single player transfer fee and for money spent in a single window.
The £107m spent on Enzo Fernandez fuelled a splurge of £326m on transfer fees in January alone, seeing Todd Boehly’s total outlay on transfers since taking over eclipse the £600m mark.
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And their lavish spending has seen them top the list for worst net spend since 2018/19.
Felix has already cost the Blues £3m in unused wages after he was sent off for a reckless challenge on his debut against Fulham.
The 23-year-old is set to return following his suspension when Chelsea visit West Ham on Saturday.
Selling Felix would give Atletico the flexibility to move for a number of targets, namely Leicester star Caglar Soyuncu or Marcus Thuram.
