Joao Felix joined Santiago Gimenez as an attacking reinforcement in the winter transfer window, and Sergio Conceicao pushed hard for his arrival.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Milan gave themselves another great coup for the attacking department by landing Felix. His agent, Jorge Mendes, has been working non-stop since Sunday evening in London to make him available to Conceiçao.
Chelsea, who hoped to sell him to England and asked Aston Villa for £50m to sell (the negotiation never took off), agreed to send him on loan and therefore the doors were opened for his landing in Milan.
It is a €2m fixed loan fee plus €2.5m in bonuses linked to qualification for the Champions League and potentially winning a trophy. The is no option to buy, because the Portuguese was cost €52m last summer and so negotiating a buy-out figure would have slowed things down.
Milan have guaranteed his salary until June, i.e. €2m net plus bonuses. The Joao Felix operation demonstrates how much the owners care about finishing the current season on a high note, and Conceicao was key.
Arrival and medical
Joao Felix arrived last night at 10pm at Malpensa’s private flights airport, with his father Carlos Sequeira. The Portuguese immediately headed to Casa Milan to sign the contract until June, where Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada were waiting for him.
Then he went to the Melia hotel, his first Milanese ‘home’. This morning he will undergo medical examinations and then go to train at Milanello. In fact, Conceiçao has moved the training scheduled for the morning to the afternoon, so he could play against Roma tomorrow night.
By midnight today, the Rossoneri will have to deliver the new list of 25 players for the league and Felix will take the place of Noah Okafor, who joined Napoli on loan.
The push and the phone call
Fundamental to Joao Felix’s arrival at Milanello, in addition to the presence of Conceiçao, was the pressure of his national teammate Rafael Leao who respects him and explained to him how to enjoy life in Milan.
The two are very close, and whether they can compete for a starting shirt at the Rossoneri is another matter. In his career, the only coach who really made the most of Felix was Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, the club that paid €120m to land him from Benfica in summer 2019.
Now bringing out the best in him will be up to Conceiçao who has known him for some time and who has great respect for him: the coach and the attacker spoke to each other in recent days and yesterday that evening, as soon as he landed, Joao received another call from his compatriot.
It was a welcome he appreciated. He has taken not Sergio’s requests and is ready for the new challenge. It’s good news for Milan: Felix won’t be coming for a change of scenery and to spend the end of 2024-25 in a new city. He wants to play and be decisive.
