Transfer Centre

Joao Felix confirms he took "significant" pay cut to join Barcelona

By Matt Law, Football Editor | 21 September 2023

Portuguese forward Joao Felix reveals that he "gave up a significant amount of money" to join Barcelona on loan from Atletico Madrid.

Joao Felix has confirmed that he "gave up a significant amount of money" in order to join Barcelona on loan from Atletico Madrid earlier this month.

The 23-year-old is said to have rejected offers from Manchester United and Liverpool in order to make his 'dream' switch to Camp Nou before the summer deadline.

Felix has made an impressive start to life at Barcelona, netting three times and providing one assist in three appearances, including two goals and an assist in Tuesday's 5-0 win over Royal Antwerp in the Champions League.

There have been suggestions that the Portugal international will collect just €400,000 (£347,000) during his loan spell due to the Catalan outfit's financial issues.

Felix has revealed that he took a huge pay-cut in order to secure a move to Xavi's side, as he "needed a change" due to his strained relationship with Atletico head coach Diego Simeone.

Barcelona's Joao Felix during the warm up before the match on September 3, 2023 © Reuters

"Yes, the truth is that I gave up a significant amount of money from my salary. But well, I needed a change, I needed to go somewhere where I could play my football and as I said I always thought this would be the ideal place," the forward told Mundo Deportivo.

"Things are going well and I had to make that effort to get back to the joy of playing.... I honestly didn't expect it. I thought, and I still think, that this is the ideal place for me but the truth is that things are going very, very well and I didn't expect them to go so well. May they continue like this and may it be like this until the end."

Felix, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Chelsea, was also quizzed on why he found it difficult to perform at his best under Simeone.

"That's clear to everyone, football is like that, whoever is doing badly has to move on. I've done it before for Chelsea and I've done it now for Barcelona because I wasn't good there," he said.

Chelsea's Joao Felix during the warm up before the match on January 12, 2023 © Reuters

"I didn't adapt to the ideas of the club and the coach, but I've always tried to do the best I could and I've had very good moments there as well."

Barcelona are open to signing Felix on a permanent basis, but the forward has six years left to run on his deal at Atletico, and it remains to be seen whether Xavi's side are able to pay the incredibly high price that the capital outfit are likely to demand to sell him in 2024.

"Well, for me it depends on how the season ends. Then it's up to Barcelona to negotiate with Atleti and then it's up to Atleti, if they want to facilitate things or not. But that's business stuff, about values, which I don't get involved in," he added when questioned on a long-term move to Camp Nou.

"I do my job on the pitch, I try to do my best so that they want to sign me in the end and that's not about values, about whether I go or not or for how much, it doesn't concern me."

Felix made a high-profile move to Atletico from Benfica in July 2019, and he has represented the Red and Whites on 131 occasions, scoring 34 goals and registering 18 assists in the process.