Catching the eye
Portuguese youngster João Félix caught the eye of many European super clubs in the 2018-19 season, when he burst onto the scene at Benfica, scoring 15 goals in 26 Primeira Liga games.
In the end, it was La Liga outfit Atlético Madrid who won the race for the forward, forking out a whopping €126 million to lure him to the Spanish Capital. As a result, Félix became the fourth most expensive player of all time, and the second most expensive teenager – after Paris Saint-Germain splashed a huge €180m on Kylian Mbappé back in 2018.
A lot of pressure comes with a transfer fee of that magnitude, and there’s added weight on your shoulders when you are being compared to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Félix’s first season at Atlético was well below par, as he found the net just six times in 27 La Liga outings.
Although, whilst Luis Suárez has stolen much of the headlines since arriving at th Wanda Metropolitano this summer from Barcelona, with five goals in his first six games, Félix deserves some recognition as well.
The 21-year-old has formed a formidable relationship with his Uruguayan strike partner, scoring five times in eight league outings, and has already netted three braces this season – scoring twice against Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League and Osasuna and Cádiz in La Liga.
His technical ability was never in doubt, and maybe last season was just a case of him getting used to his new surroundings and a different culture, which is always difficult for a teenage player when they move to a new country and a league with a different style of football – just look at Moise Kean at Everton last season compared to him at PSG this term, for example.
We are not even a quarter of the way into the 2020-21 season, and already Félix has bettered his stats from his first year at Atlético, and he just enjoyed another successful international break with Portugal, scoring their final goal in a 7-0 rout of Andorra, before netting the second in a 3-2 win over Croatia.
His first real challenge of the La Liga season was last weekend, when Diego Simeone’s side hosted Barça. With Suárez testing positive for Covid-19 whilst on international duty, Félix was tasked with leading the line, showing that the demanding Simeone has faith in the 21-year-old now – something he didn’t seem to show a lot of last season.
Whilst Félix wasn’t directly involved in the only goal of the game, as Yannick Carrasco capitalised on a mistake from Barça keeper Marc-André ter Stegen, it was still a well-rounded performance from the attacker, and he didn’t look out of his depth.
With Suárez just a couple of months away from hitting 34, it’s fair to say that the Uruguayan is a short-term option for Atlético, but in the long run he may turn out to have been a crucial signing. His arrival seems to have sprung Félix into life, and the youngster can learn a lot from the veteran striker.
If they continue to thrive off each other, Atlético could find themselves lifting the La Liga trophy for the first time since 2014. However, despite Barça and Real Madrid enduring stuttering starts to the season, Simeone’s side still trail behind the La Liga giants in the outright odds, if you were looking for a bet on the title winners.
There’s no doubt that Félix has come out of the blocks firing this campaign, and whilst he’s starting to show glimpses of that €126m sum, he needs to keep it up for the remainder of the season to prove his worth.