Joao Felix transfer: Atletico Madrid make £113m offer for Benfica teenager to replace Antoine Griezmann
The 19-year-old is set to become one of football’s most expensive players in history
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Your support makes all the difference.Benfica have confirmed Atletico Madrid have made an offer of €126m (£112.8m) to sign teenage forward Joao Felix, touted in Portugal as a possible successor to Cristiano Ronaldo.
The transfer would be one of the most expensive ever in football, with a higher price tag than what Juventus paid Real Madrid for Ronaldo — nearly €100m (£99.2m) — last year.
Benfica claimed on Wednesday that the club was evaluating the offer, which would give the club a net value of €120m (£107.5m), equivalent to the player’s buyout clause.
Atletico is expected to receive that same amount for the sale of France forward Antoine Griezmann, who announced he would leave the Spanish club at the end of the season.
The 19-year-old Felix made his debut with Portugal’s national team at the inaugural UEFA Nations League earlier this month. He played with Ronaldo in the team’s opener but was on the bench for the rest of the tournament that host Portugal eventually won.
Felix began drawing comparisons to the 34-year-old Ronaldo after making a rapid rise through the youth squads of Benfica. He debuted with the first team in August and quickly established himself as a regular starter for the Portuguese champions.
Extremely skillful and a gifted scorer, Felix was the youngest player to appear in Benfica’s “B” team, at 16. He was also the youngest to score at the team’s Stadium of Light, at 18, and the youngest to score a hat trick in the Europa League, at 19, after the competition was re-branded in 2009.
AP
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