Official: João Felix completes €126M move to Atletico Madrid

It’s official. João Felix has moved to Atletico Madrid for 126 million euros.

While the transfer has been common knowledge for some time now, both Benfica and Atletico Madrid have both confirmed the completion of the deal, which sees Felix become the most expensive Atletico Madrid signing in history, as well as the biggest ever sale by a Portuguese club. 

It also makes him the third most expensive player acquired in the history of football, only behind Neymar and Mbappe, and thus he is now also the most expensive Portuguese player ever, overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo, who cost Juventus 105 million euros last summer.

He is also the second most expensive teenager in the history of football, only costing 4 million euros less than Kylian Mbappe.

Felix joins Atletico on the back of an outstanding debut season with Benfica, scoring 15 and assisting 9 in 26 league outings as he thrilled the Benfica faithful.

His performances were of such a high level that Portugal manager Fernando Santos opted to call up the teenager for the UEFA Nations League finals and gave him his debut against Switzerland in the semi-final of the inaugural competition.

That Portugal manager gave his thoughts on a potential move for Felix, stating in no uncertain terms that he felt the 19-year old was best suited to staying at Benfica for another season, citing Renato Sanches as an example of the error it could be to leave too soon.

While the fee comes to a total of 126 million euros, Benfica will ultimately receive only 120 million euros - 30 million euros from Atletico Madrid and 90 million euros from the bank.

The bank will then receive 6 million euros as interest, thus meaning that Benfica receive 120M. Jorge Mendes, however, will then receive 12 million euros for his part in negotiations, so Benfica get 108M overall.