The fall of Felix - inside one of football's most confusing careers

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Emlyn Begley

BBC Sport journalist

The next chapter in one of football's most confusing careers is nearly upon us - and with it comes the feeling that the potential he once had will never be fulfilled.

Joao Felix, who is set to join Al-Nassr from Chelsea, remains the third most expensive transfer ever - in terms of initial fee - having cost Atletico Madrid £113m from Benfica at the age of 19 in 2019.

The Portugal forward has since gone on to play for European giants Barcelona, AC Milan and Chelsea - yet, since leaving home, has never scored more than 10 goals in a season.

Now, aged 25, he is off to Saudi Arabia. As Lisbon-based journalist Marcus Alves puts it: "The feeling back home is that Felix has officially given up on being a truly top-level international player."

So what happened?

"It doesn't seem there is any turning point for him," said Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague.

"It drives coaches mad. They see the potential but he'll never fulfil it. It's a mental thing. It's not that he's not bothered - but he's not listening."

'Pure art' - the start at Benfica

Having come through the Benfica academy, Felix became the youngest player in Benfica B history when he made his debut in Portugal's second tier aged 16.

He went on to make his first-team debut in August 2018 - and, put quite simply, he was brilliant, especially in the second half of the season.

Felix netted in the Lisbon derby against Sporting just a week after his introduction and became the youngest player to score a Europa League hat-trick in their quarter-final tie with Eintracht Frankfurt.

He ended the season with 20 goals in 43 games across all competitions, 15 of those coming in 26 league matches.

Benfica won the title and Felix was named young player of the year, named in the Portuguese league team of the season - and later that year won the Golden Boy award for the best player in Europe aged under 21.

"Those six months of him playing at Estadio da Luz regularly were by far the best I've witnessed from a player in almost a decade in Portugal," said journalist Alves.

"It was pure art, a joy to watch. He seemed destined for the top.

"Back in mid-2019, when Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at the Portugal camp for the Nations League finals, I remember seeing a headline on TV that said 'Ronaldo joins Felix'. Felix, not the team.

"That was no joke - it was just how highly rated Felix was at that time."

Then Atletico Madrid came calling to complete one of the biggest transfers in history.

Awards at Atletico - but not enough to justify the fee

The four most expensive transfers to this day, sorted by British pounds and not euros, were all made between 2017 and 2019.

The top two were Paris St-Germain's signings of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

Number three is Atletico Madrid's £113m move for Felix to replace Antoine Griezmann, who they sold to Barcelona for £107.7m in the fourth biggest deal.

There he would link up with Atletico's Argentine boss Diego Simeone, who is legendary for how hard he makes his teams work.

"We should have seen what was coming," said Balague. "On one occasion earlier on in his time at Atletico, Simeone got really mad at him during a game, asked him to do certain things and you could see how Joao Felix was ignoring him.

"He basically ended up doing nothing like the stuff Simeone was asking him to do. From then on he started to come in and out of the side and we started to hear stories about his lack of defensive commitment. But I think it goes deeper."

There were good times at Atletico, too, but not enough of them to justify that fee.

In three and a half seasons in (and out) of the Atletico team he scored 35 goals, as well as 16 assists, in 131 games.

In 2020-21 he was part of the Atleti squad who won their second La Liga title under Simeone.

But he only started 14 league games that season - and netted just three goals after Christmas in any competition.

The following campaign was worse for the team but better individually, as Atletico finished third but he was named the club's player of the season, with 10 goals in all competitions coming before a season-ending injury in April.

"After two and a half years of flattering to deceive, Joao Felix is finally starting to look capable of becoming one of the best players in the world," a BBC article at the time opened with.

But it was a false dawn.

"The cost to Atletico suggests there was a raw talent," said Balague.

"I think he's the last generation of players as kids who were told how brilliant they were, that do not appreciate the other side of it that you need – which is to work without the ball. Even with the ball he's not consistent enough."

Halfway through the next season, Felix wanted out.

"He is the biggest bet this club has taken in its history," Atletico chief executive officer Gil Marin said in December 2022., external "I personally think he's a top talent, a world-class player.

"For reasons it isn't worth getting into - the relationship between him and the boss [Simeone], the minutes played, his motivation right now - it makes you think that the reasonable thing is that if there's an option that's good for the player, good for the club, we can look at it.

"I'd love him to stay personally, but I don't think that's the player's idea."

Chelsea and Barcelona loans don't change fortunes

Then came his first loan spell at Chelsea.

In January 2023 Graham Potter's Blues signed him on a six-month deal for a loan fee of £9.7m. At the same time Atleti extended his contract for a year to 2027.

Arsenal and Manchester United had also been linked to him.

Felix looked quite good on his Chelsea debut in their derby match against Fulham... until he was sent off for a lunging tackle on Kenny Tete in a 2-1 defeat.

He would only start another 13 games for the club once his three-match ban was over, plus six more off the bench, scoring four goals.

And that summer new Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino, who replaced Frank Lampard, who had in turn replaced Potter, decided he did not want Felix so no permanent deal was struck.

Felix subsequently returned to Atletico, but was reportedly seen arguing with sporting director Andrea Berta and made to train with the reserves.

Griezmann, the man he was signed to replace, was back at Atletico and even took his number seven shirt.

And then Felix angered the club and their fans by announcing he wanted to join Barcelona - and was booed on the opening day against Granada, a game he did not even play in.

He got the move to Barca, the team he said he supported as a boy, on a season-long loan on 1 September.

The Portuguese scored 10 goals for Barcelona, with two of those coming against his parent club.

He was the first player to score in both La Liga games against Atletico Madrid for any side since Lionel Messi four years earlier.

Barca did look into keeping Felix but signed Dani Olmo instead - and then came another unusual move.

Back to Chelsea (for some reason)

Considering how Felix did not set the world alight during his loan spell at Chelsea, it was somewhat of a surprise that they paid £45m to sign him a year later.

He agreed a seven-year deal - one he is now set to leave six years early.

The signing came under strange circumstances and was perhaps one for the accountants rather than the coaching staff.

Chelsea wanted to sell Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid, a move that would help them meet profit and sustainability rules because the English midfielder was a youth product so would count as pure profit.

But Atletico could only afford to buy him if they sold someone.

The Blues tried to bring in Samu Omorodion but that move fell through - so they signed Felix instead, for £12m more than the Spanish club paid them for Gallagher.

He scored on the first game of his return, against Wolves, but that would prove to be his only Premier League goal as a permanent Chelsea player.

Felix netted seven times for the Blues last season, one goal every 135 minutes - which actually made it the best spell of his career in terms of goals since leaving Benfica.

But that included doubles against Panathinaikos, Noah and Morecambe as he featured mainly in cup games.

Just 7% of the way through that contract he joined AC Milan on a six-month loan for a £5m fee.

His time in Italy yielded just three goals in 21 games - one every 339 minutes - and is best remembered for a viral incident with Kyle Walker.

"Pass the ball - nobody here is Messi," Walker was filmed saying to Felix in the tunnel at half-time in a game against Napoli.

The England defender later said on his BBC podcast that they were discussing team tactics and it was not him criticising the Portuguese.

Much like Chelsea and Barcelona before, Milan did not make the loan permanent.

"Because of the potential he had there's always the hope things will change but, to be honest, all the clubs he's been at recently come out with the same conclusion – he's not a modern forward in terms of work-rate," said Balague.

"He doesn't want to change what he offers to football and that takes you to a limit."

Portugal-based reporter Alves added: "When he was unveiled as a Atletico player in 2019, there were six TV channels broadcasting the presentation live. Now nobody appears to care much anymore.

"He's just become a five-minute segment within transfer market shows every window."

Back to Benfica in a happy ending...? Nope

With Felix clearly not having a future at Chelsea, even being left out of their Fifa Club World Cup squad this summer, there was talk of him returning to Benfica.

A chance to go home and try to rediscover the magic from the start of his career. The romantic move.

"The whole world knows that Benfica is my favourite team. It's my home. One day I will return. I don't know if it's now or in a few years, but if it were now I would be very happy. There are two options: either I stay in England or I return to Benfica," he said earlier in July., external

Benfica boss Bruno Lage warned publicly that Felix could have to take a pay cut to make the move happen.

And... instead, he is off to Saudi Arabia and Al-Nassr, where he will play under ex-Benfica boss Jorge Jesus and alongside Portugal legend Ronaldo.

"Regardless of how much effort his PR team does [about those Portuguese links] - that was certainly not where you pictured him going in those Benfica days," said Alves.

"Earlier this month, he told local TV that he was inclined to return to the Lisbon giants. That made a lot of sense - he would be, after all, reunited with the manager that took the most out of him in his career so far, Bruno Lage. "

Balague said: "We say [in Spain] head of a rat instead of tail of a lion.

"He's not consistent enough, doesn't work hard enough, doesn't fit the new position in football that has become the predominant model of our times - because it requires responsibilities and obligations he's not willing to do."

Felix has won two Nations Leagues with Portugal and scored nine goals in 45 caps.

Alves added: "The feeling is those six months of incredible football at Benfica will be the best you've seen from him. That's why it's so frustrating to see him heading at 25 to Saudi football."