Atletico Madrid and Chelsea both found themselves enamoured with the idea of Joao Felix, only to be left underwhelmed by the reality. So, when the Portuguese playmaker made a fast start to his short-term loan spell at AC Milan, his new fans dared to dream – but those who knew his story knew better than to get carried away. And following the Rossoneri’s Champions League exit on Tuesday night, their scepticism was justified.
Felix penned a seven-year contract with Chelsea after completing a £45 million permanent move back in August, having spent the latter half of the 2022-23 season on loan at Stamford Bridge. However, despite arriving at Atletico Madrid from Benfica in a staggering £113 million deal back in 2019 – one of the most expensive transfers in history – his career has yet to truly catch fire.
With just three Premier League starts to his name for the Blues this time around, he was once again forced to look elsewhere for minutes. And, after an electric start to life in Italy where he scored inside 15 minutes in a Coppa Italia tie, Felix was swiftly brought back down to earth against Feyenoord. The glimpses of brilliance are still there, but his inconsistency keeps him in perpetual motion, bouncing between clubs like a hitchhiker in search of a permanent home.
Across two legs in the Champions League play-off round, AC Milan fell to a 2-1 aggregate defeat against Feyenoord, and Felix was a mere background character. Over 90 minutes, his most telling contribution was picking up a yellow card. Beyond that, his impact was minimal: he completed just 67% of his passes, created a single chance, found a teammate with only 20% of his long passes, lost possession 17 times, and committed three fouls.
There’s no other way to put it: the Portugal international’s performance was nothing short of dreadful. Felix is maddeningly inconsistent, and despite his attempts to redirect attention to the flashes of his wonderkid days from years past, he fails to make a lasting impact. For Chelsea fans, their patience – already wearing thin – has finally run out after his lacklustre loan display.
His 7.4 SofaScore might have helped him flatter to deceive, but supporters online were having none of it.
“Joao Felix and Morata are two sides of the same coin in more ways than one, but they both promise more than they actually give,” one X user said after comparing two of the club’s recent flops. A second comment read: “I’ve never seen Joao Felix have a good game, like ever. This man has cost over 200 million pounds in transfer fees in his career. It has to be money laundering.”
A third comment said: “Joao Felix and his mate, Rafael Leao, are two of the most overrated footballers in Europe in the last 10 years. The latter you can say is just frustratingly inconsistent. The former is just nowhere near as good as he is rumoured to be,” while a fourth concluded by hitting the panic button: “Joao Felix is the worst footballer to grace the game.”
