Official: Chelsea sign João Félix on loan from Atlético Madrid

Chelsea’s January recruitment drive continues with the arrival of João Félix from Atlético Madrid.

The 23-year-old attacking player joins on a six-month loan without any specific future considerations, with Chelsea paying upwards of £10m (plus full wages?) for the privilege. That makes it a rather expensive short-term arrangement, but at least we’re only on the hook for these six months should things not go as well as hoped.

And that’s an important consideration with Félix struggling to truly establish himself at Atlético over the past three years, since his big-money move from Benfica in 2019. He was the fourth-most expensive transfer in football at the time, levering a 20-goal campaign at Benfica into €126m for his club. He’s yet to come close to matching that output on the pitch since, but perhaps Diego Simeone’s style and system was just holding him back — he did have a goal and two assists in four games at the World Cup. Guess we’ll find out!

“Chelsea is one of the great teams in the world and I hope to help the team reach their objectives, so I am very, very happy to be here and very excited to play at Stamford Bridge.”

-João Félix; Source: Chelsea FC

In any case, welcome, João Félix. It’s going to be a tough season, but let’s win some things!

(If registered in time today, Félix could be available for tomorrow’s match against Fulham already.)