Joao Felix reveals sacrifice to seal Barcelona loan
- Felix joined Barcelona on loan from Atletico Madrid this summer
- Deal does not include an option to buy
- Portugal international has managed three goals in three games
By Tom Gott
Joao Felix has revealed he gave up a "significant amount of money" in order to complete his season-long loan from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona.
Felix spent the second half of last season on an expensive loan with Chelsea and his high wages threatened to derail his hopes of moving to Barcelona, whose financial troubles have forced them to pursue cut-price signings in recent years.
The move eventually went through on deadline day and Felix has now revealed the financial sacrifice he had to make to seal his dream switch.
"The truth is I gave up a significant amount of money from my salary," Felix told Mundo Deportivo. "But, well, I needed to change.
"I needed to go to a place where I could practice my football and, as I said, I always believed this would be the ideal place. Things are going well. I had to make that effort to have joy playing again."
Asked if he would make any further sacrifices to join Barcelona permanently next summer, Felix added: "It depends how the season ends. Barcelona are the ones who have to negotiate with Atleti, and it all depends on Atleti, if they want to make things easier or not.
"But those are business things, numbers which I don't get involved in. I do my job on the field, I try to do my best so that they want to sign me in the end."
Felix went on to admit that enjoying football was a key reason for his decision to leave Atletico, where he struggled to adapt to Diego Simeone's preferred style of play.
"It's clear to everyone, whoever is in a bad place has to change places," he said. "I did it before with Chelsea and I have done it now with Barcelona because I was not doing well [at Atletico].
"I did not adapt to the ideas of the club and the coach, but I always tried to do the best I could and I have had very good times there too."
It has been a dream start to life in Catalonia for Felix, who has three goals and an assist from his first three games.
"I honestly didn't expect [this start]," he confessed. "I believed, and still believe, that this is the ideal place for me. The truth is things are going very, very well and I didn't expect them to go so well. Let them continue like this and let it be like this until the end."
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