Chelsea ready to sell Joao Felix to AC Milan

Carlo Garganese

Updated: 22 Jan 2025 10:46 GMT
4 min read

Joao Felix, Enzo Maresca, Chelsea, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Chelsea have decided to sell Joao Felix in January if they receive the right offer, according to Ben Jacobs.

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The 25-year-old joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid for a whopping €52 million in August, with the Blues only agreeing a deal in order to ensure Conor Gallagher moved in the opposite direction.

However, Felix has only mustered three Premier League starts so far this campaign, amid competition from Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku.

As a result both player and club have decided that a move away in January would be the best solution.

AC Milan have been heavily linked with Felix in recent days and journalist Florian Plettenberg has confirmed that the Italian giants want to sign him.

The Rossoneri are in the market for a left-sided attacker who can also play in a front two.

Initially, their plan had been to sign Marcus Rashford from Manchester United but they ended their interest in the English player last week.

A combination of Rashford’s big wages, as well as the fact that Milan are only eligible to sign one non-EU player this month, led them to drop the attacker.

Instead, Milan will sign Kyle Walker from Manchester City in a deal that should be completed in the coming days.

New Milan manager Sergio Conceicao knows Felix well from Portuguese and also believes that he is well suited to playing in a front two.

Conceicao plans to switch to a 4-4-2, which is his favoured system, and play Felix as one of the two attackers.

Plettenberg adds that there is interest in Felix from elsewhere.

© IMAGO - Joao Felix has flopped at Chelsea

Joao Felix career

Felix burst onto the scene as a teenager with Benfica and was considered as one of the most exciting youngsters in world football.

This led to Atletico Madrid splashing out €126 million for Felix in 2019, which made him the fourth most expensive player of all time.

However, Felix struggled badly at Atletico to live up to his price tag. He didn’t benefit from Diego Simeone’s defensive style of play, and slowly fell out of favour. He managed just 34 goals in 131 games for the club.

He was loaned out to Chelsea and Barcelona in successive seasons, where he struggled to impress.

Despite this, Chelsea still decided to bring him back permanently last summer.

Once again, though, Felix has failed to make the grade and has managed one goal in 20 Premier League appearances.

He has won a Portuguese Primeira Liga, Spanish La Liga and a UEFA Nations League during his career.

He has been capped 45 times by Portugal, scoring nine goals.