It’s fair to say the Portuguese press is a little lost when it comes to the negotiations to take João Félix away from Benfica.
After reading four different stories from local newspapers this morning, we realised that each one of them has chosen to believe in a theory.
Correio da Manhã claims Atletico Madrid and Manchester City have both submitted offers of €120m for the player. They claim Benfica can’t do anything else, since that’s the amount of his release clause, and it’s João Félix who will decided.
Interestingly, Correio da Manhã isn’t even a sports newspaper, but has the story on their front page, with several claims that they’ve learned it from their own sources.
Then we get to Record. They say Benfica consider Félix to be ‘lost’, since they have no chance to keep him. And the interesting part is claims about Atletico Madrid’s advantage.
The Colchoneros reportedly offer Félix a protagonist role, something that Manchester City can’t, so that’s the reason why the player would be ‘closer’ on joining Diego Simeone’s side. It’s claimed that he’s even in Madrid already.
However, newspaper O Jogo has a completely different take. They say that Atletico Madrid are actually out of Félix’s plans, since he would rather join Manchester United or Manchester City. It’s also claimed the Spanish side don’t have enough money to afford his signing.
Meanwhile, A Bola have given up having an exclusive on the case. They only take claims from the English press saying it’s Manchester City who lead the race for the youngster.
After reading all this, it sounds like Correio da Manhã and Record are more confident of being right, not because of their information, but because of the way they write and for having the stories on the front page. But with so many possibilities around, we better wait and see what’s happening.
Either way, it’s shouldn’t take much longer now.
