Chelsea could face their own €45m starlet in summer tournament as “advanced links” grow | OneFootball

There is a lot left to play for in this Chelsea season – the Conference League, the Champions League places in the Premier League, plus the Club World Cup.

But there’s already a lot of movement and planning going on ahead of this summer, and one of the major sagas (once again) is likely to centre around the future of Joao Felix.

His arrival for around £45m from Atletico Madrid last summer has already proved to be a bit of a disaster. After 6 months of mainly featuring in the Conference League he was loaned out to AC Milan in January, and he’s now struggling even to make the team there.

Somehow we offered ourselves up to take on this hot potato from Atletico, and now it’s our problem where he goes in the summer. The good news is that there does seem to be some interest developing in Portugal. Record, the football paper there, is reporting that Felix is wanted by his old team Benfica.

They say that there has already been contact between the two clubs as they try to find out what we would want for the attacking midfielder.

Benfica aren’t in the business of paying big transfer fees, so we can’t expect too much from this situation. But if they’ll consider him, we don’t have many alternatives but to consider it, no matter what price they offer.

Felix homecoming perhaps the best outcome for all teams

Joao Felix wearing number 79 for Benfica.

The piece actually makes the interest sound quite advanced, with claims that Benfica want a loan deal done by the start of June so that Felix can play for them at the Club World Cup, which Chelsea will also be competing in.

Given his struggles everywhere else he’s played, accepting a loan for Felix back to his old team and hoping he does well enough that they eventually buy him might prove a smart move.