Benfica ready to pay €25m but not a dime more for João Félix

Bomb Squad lead singer João Félix recently spoke of his not-so-secret desire to move back to Benfica, the club where made his breakthrough, to try to rekindle his career under manager Bruno Lage, but the financial realities of the situation continue to make that a difficult proposition.

Even if Félix were to agree to cut down his wages significantly, Benfica are having trouble coming up with a transfer fee large enough to get Chelsea to the negotiating table in the first place. Reports earlier this week even claimed that Benfica would somehow try to acquire just a percentage of the player’s rights, which is not allowed under FIFA regulations, strongly opposed by UEFA (though not banned outright), and most pertinently, fully outlawed in English football.

More recently, A Bola have claimed that Benfica could scrounge €25m together, which they are hoping that Félix’s agent, Jorge Mendes could somehow convince Chelsea to accept. If anyone can do that, it’s probably Mendes, though getting Chelsea to take a 50 per cent loss on Félix in just 12 months could be a beyond even his abilities.

The report then adds that even if somehow the two teams could agree a deal, the wage issue would be another massive hurdle to overcome. So it doesn’t sound like we’re making much, if any progress in this situation. This move certainly would benefit all involved, but at the moment there isn’t enough goodwill to just let it happen. (The report also insinuates that after the Enzo Fernández saga, Chelsea are not exactly bending over backwards to accommodate Benfica ... and rightly so.)

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