Joao Felix to Chelsea: When Roy Keane called Portugal star an 'imposter'

In partnership with

GiveMeSport

·10 January 2023

Joao Felix to Chelsea: When Roy Keane called Portugal star an 'imposter'

Joao Felix is on his way to Chelsea.

The man who was signed by Atletico Madrid in a €126 million deal will join the Blues on a six-month loan.

OneFootball Videos

On Tuesday, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano gave the transfer the ‘here we go’ treatment, revealing that the temporary deal will cost Chelsea an eyebrow-raising €11 million.

Graham Potter’s side will also cover Felix’s full salary, which is reportedly worth £270,000-a-week.

Yeah, the Blues are going all out to boost their attacking power for the second half of the season.

The signing of Felix is certainly a risky one, though. He hasn’t exactly set the world alight at Atletico or on the international stage since leaving Benfica in the summer of 2019.

That’s resulted in him receiving quite a bit of criticism in recent years, perhaps the most scathing coming from the mouth of Manchester United legend, Roy Keane.

Why did Keane criticise Felix?

After Portugal were eliminated by Belgium in the last-16 of Euro 2020, Keane lined up his verbal crosshairs on Felix, due to the fact the forward missed a golden opportunity late on.

Belgium won the match 1-0 thanks to a stunner from Thorgan Hazard, but Cristiano Ronaldo‘s team certainly had chances to level the scores.

Thibaut Courtois and the post stood firm, while Felix failed to even get his shot at the death on target. Instead, the scuffed effort went wide.

He should have done a lot better and as such, Keane delivered a scathing assessment in the ITV Sport studio when analysing the incident…

Video: Keane’s harsh criticism of Felix

Keane ranted to footage of Felix’s gaffe: “I get really annoyed with it, particularly when they’re quality players.

“There’s no excuse for it, seeing players leaning back and just missing the target, at least test the goalkeeper, these are top players no getting away from that.

“Felix, when he came on, that guy’s an imposter, he’s an imposter.

“He comes on, your country needs you… hit the target! What was he? £100m? If I was Ronaldo I’d certainly be going after him in the dressing room. Shocking. Felix and Fernandes were driving me crazy.”

Yeah, Roy didn’t hold back one iota and in truth, he may have gone a tad overboard.

It was a pretty bad attempt, but one that could so easily have been made by Ronaldo – who Keane has passionately defended on numerous occasions down the years.