Joao Felix took serious pay cut to make Barcelona transfer possible & hopes Atletico Madrid won’t scupper plans for permanent move

The Portugal international forward made his way to Camp Nou on an initial season-long loan agreement towards the end of the summer window. He never shied away from the fact that Barca were his “dream” club – much to the annoyance of some of those in the Spanish capital.

Felix, who spent time on loan at Chelsea last season, has told Mundo Deportivo of making personal sacrifices in order to link up with the reigning La Liga champions: “It's true I gave up a significant part of my salary, but I needed a change. I needed to come to a place where I can play my style of football and I have always said I think this is the ideal place. Things are going well - I didn't expect to start so well - and it was an effort I needed to make to be able to find joy playing football again.”

Felix has registered three goals and an assist through three appearances for Barca in La Liga and Champions League competition and would welcome the opportunity to stay on in Catalunya if Atletico play ball in future negotiations. He added: “Well, for me it depends on how the season ends. Afterwards, Barcelona is the one who has to negotiate with Atleti and that depends after Atleti, if they want to make things easier or not. But those are business things, values, which I don’t get involved in. I do my job on the field, I try to do my best so that they want to sign me in the end and that thing about values, whether I go or not go or for how much, doesn’t interest me.”

There is no purchase option within Felix’s deal at Barcelona, meaning that the 23-year-old – who joined Atletico for €126 million (£109m/$134m) back in 2019 – is going to have to play his way into contention for another big-money move.