Chelsea are one of the suitors for Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix, who is ‘close to leaving’ the Spanish club in the January transfer window.
That’s according to Marca, who say the Portuguese forward has ‘asked to leave’ and is looking for a new team to join.
They say that Felix has decided to leave Atletico and, under his own initiative, has asked super-agent Jorge Mendes to find him a new club.
Atletico are willing to facilitate this and have now gone from insisting the player will not leave in January to admitting they need to find a solution to the situation.
That’s because they know the player’s relationship with Diego Simeone is now beyond repair and the only solution is to part ways.
Mendes is already on the lookout for a team that wants to invest heavily in the player, and he is ‘knocking on the door’ of sporting directors around Europe looking for a suitor.
Chelsea are one of those who have ‘joined the bidding’ and are considered one of the ‘great candidates’ to secure his signature.
They’ve been on the hunt for a forward since the summer, when they let Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku depart but only brought in Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.
Aubameyang was very much brought in for former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, though, and the growing belief is that the Blues will enter the market to find someone who better fits Graham Potter’s plans moving forwards.
Felix could be that player, although much will depend on how he performs at the World Cup, which could help to convince his suitors to push ahead with a move.
That would be confirmation that he is still the player many thought he was following a few difficult years at the Wanda Metropolitano.
He’s already started the tournament with a goal for Portugal and the hope for Atletico is that he can continue and ramp up his price tag.
A good sale would help them as they need to raise more than €60m to settle the accounts.
