Barcelona in advanced negotiations with Atlético for the loan of Joao Felix

Joao Felix wants Barcelona, that’s something we’ve known for a while. What we haven’t known, is how much Barcelona was Joao Felix.

According to sports journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, the answer to that question is becoming clearer, with Barca at an advanced stage with Atlético de Madrid for the loan move of Felix to Catalonia.

The Portuguese striker spent the second half of last season on loan at Chelsea, scoring 4 times in 20 appearances, and has fallen out of favour with Atlético manager Diego Simeone, who is willing to sanction his exit with the striker not in his plans for the new season.

Last month we heard that Barcelona manager Xavi was reluctant to sign off on the deal, as he was unsure how Felix would fit into his side. Now that Deco has been confirmed as the new Sporting Director, maybe he’s decided that it’s a deal worth making.

The loan deal will be for a lot less than originally reported

Although it was originally reported that the loan deal would be for around €15 million, that number has now halved, with Di Marzio indicating the deal will be for around €7-€8 million, although it’s unclear if an obligation to buy clause will be inserted into the contract.

Over the coming days, we’ll focus on how Felix would fit into the Barcelona team considering the current La Liga champions have plenty of options in the forward position, and what if anything this means for the future of Ansu Fati in Spain.

Although bringing in a new forward is nice, Barca’s main problem area remains.

Barcelona have been working tirelessly to find a new right-back this summer with Joao Cancelo the priority target of manager Xavi. We were expecting to see progress on that deal this week, but unfortunately, we’ve had very little.

To make matters worse, it was revealed yesterday that makeshift right-back Ronald Araujo had suffered a hamstring injury which will sideline him for the foreseeable future.