Benfica and their Lisbon rivals Sporting seem to spit out a wonderkid a year, and the latest off the conveyor belt is Joao Felix.
Increasingly in transfer stories over the past few months, there’s now greater concentration ahead of the summer window.
Jornal de Noticias reports there’s interest from Europe’s top clubs, with Chelsea now pulled into the situation.
Jorge Mendes is said to have stepped in to negotiate a potential transfer of the 18 year old, should any of those keen come up with a good enough offer.
It’s claimed Benfica will only entertain offers close to Felix’s buyout clause of €60m, but the same article states he won’t be sold for less than €40m and there’s a chance a percentage guarantee of a future transfer could help bring the fee down a little.
Feliz is still actually a Benfica B player and hasn’t broken through to the club’s first team, at any real level. Therefore such a fee seems very high indeed and it has to be doubtful whether Chelsea would consider going to such an amount.
Even if it came down to €30m, it’s still a huge amount for the attacking midfielder, and those in charge at at Stamford Bridge may feel the risk outweighs the benefits.
Felix would almost certainly be sent on loan if he did move to Chelsea, which makes parting with a huge fee less likely.
