Barcelona will face a lot of complications if they try to pursue Atletico Madrid superstar

Any attempt of Barcelona trying to push for Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix will involve a lot of complications, says transfer market specialist Fabrizio Romano on Gerard Romero’s Twitch stream.

Barcelona’s interest in signing Felix isn’t really a new proposition, to say the very least. Earlier it was confirmed that the Catalan club did try their luck during Antoine Griezmann’s transfer, but the Rojiblanco were simply not interested in any kind of swap.

And that certainly wasn’t the only instance when Barcelona showed interest in acquiring the Portuguese. In fact, the team has made as many as three attempts to land the young forward in the past, only to miss out on their target on every occasion.

Their very first attempt was during the 2019 summer transfer window when Felix had just won the Golden Boy award. Atletico, however, engineered a clever move under Barça’s understanding by simply agreeing to pay €127.2 million in instalments.

Felix didn’t really have a great start to his new life in Spain under Diego Simeone, and Barcelona were ready to bring him on loan. Atleti’s instant rejection, however, collapsed the deal right away. 

Barcelona knocked on Atletico’s doors once again in 2021 when Griezmann was closing on his return.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta proposed a straight swap between Griezmann and Felix, but the Madrid-based team were more than willing to pay the €40 million fee as part of the obligatory buy option.

Laporta’s public admiration of Felix explains Barça’s interest hasn’t really dried out.

The only problem that remains is Atletico’s reluctance to do the business and the fact that the youngster has a whopping €350 million worth of release clause, which was inserted upon agreeing to a seven-year deal in 2019.