'Sell Mount and Pulisic to sign Felix' says Chelsea club legend

Stuart Telford

• 24 Mar 2023 09:24 GMT
• 3 min read

Joao Felix has impressed since joining Chelsea on loan from Atletico Madrid in January, and Frank Leboeuf thinks the club should do all they can to keep him.

Chelsea paid Atletico an €11 million loan fee for Felix's services in the winter transfer window, and he has scored two goals in seven Premier League games since.

Signed for his creative influence as much as his goalscoring prowess, the Portuguese has also lifted fans off their seats with his silky dribbling, technique and vision.

READ: How much will Chelsea have to pay to sign Joao Felix?

The Blues are yet to negotiate Felix's fee should they make his loan deal permanent next summer, but Leboeuf thinks they should pull out all the stops to raise the requisite funds.

"Joao Felix is a great player," the France '98 World Cup winner told ESPN. "I think he's the most dangerous player, the most entertaining player, the most artistic player at Chelsea right now. He’s been pretty consistent too, almost every game he creates something.

'Hopefully Chelsea sell Pulisic and Mount'

"Hopefully Chelsea will be able to sell a few players - maybe [Christian] Pulisic and [Mason] Mount - and can then get Felix on a permanent.

READ: 'Bad business' - Chelsea warned summer sale could make rivals title-contenders

"It would be a lot of money, that's the only worry for the owners. But in terms of a football player, I would sign him."

Felix remains the second-most expensive teenager of all-time after Kylian Mbappe having joined Atletico from Benfica for €126m in 2019, but his parent club are unlikely to make that back, despite Felix impressing in West London.

Felix is currently valued at €45m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, but even that could prove prohibitively expensive for the Blues.

Chelsea have spent more than €600m across two transfer windows since Todd Boehly replaced Roman Abramovich as owner last May, but the loophole they used to escape FFP - seven- and eight-year contracts - is about to close.

Mount and Chelsea have failed to agree terms on a new contract for the academy graduate with Liverpool circling, while USMNT star Pulisic has been linked with Manchester United, Juventus and others.