Barcelona has finally landed the Portuguese forward Joao Felix, who was desperate to play for the Catalan club and refused massive offers from other clubs, including Saudi Al Hilal, to achieve his goal.
But the dream came true at a cost – Felix had to make serious compromises and sacrifices.
In the final hours of the transfer window, a difficult negotiation between Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, and Felix’s agent Jorge Mendes resulted in various compromises.
To begin with, Felix agreed to extend his contract at Atlético from 2027 to 2029, which benefited Atlético in reducing the costs of Financial Fair Play.
And then Atletico and Felix made the biggest sacrifice together – Barça could not pay either the loan or Felix’s contract from Madrid, which amounts to just over 12,000,000 euros gross per year.
The deal in the end was that Atlético would let the player go on a free loan (but without the buyout option) and pay him half of the contract.
The second half was taken over by Barcelona by the player agreeing to receive only €400,000 instead of the remaining €6,000,000.
Felix’s annual salary cut seems massive – he gave up half of his contract, refused 50 times the salary offered by Saudi Al Hilal, and accepted only €400,000!
But for him, playing for Barcelona was priceless. The Catalan club faced financial difficulties all summer and seemed to have no chance of signing a player of Felix’s caliber and value. However, his persistence and willingness to wait paid off in the end.
📰[MD] | João Felix Secret.
Barcelona will only pay €400K of the player’s salary and the rest will be paid by Atlético Madrid. pic.twitter.com/9zw5ZUj4xE
— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) September 5, 2023