Newcastle United emerges as most likely destination for Atletico Madrid attacker

Atletico Madrid are stuck in quite a limbo with Joao Felix’s future ahead of next season. The Portuguese, currently on loan at Chelsea, has not performed convincingly enough for them to consider retaining his services on a permanent transfer.

Atletico Madrid are not looking to recover the €130-ish million they paid for him in 2019 from Benfica. They would be happy to get a sum around €80 million as the team is already struggling to come up with a budget for the summer transfer window.

With Felix’s salary on their wage bill, and without the money expected from his departure, Atletico will not be able to adjust much on transfers in the summer. The Portuguese could become a huge problem for the Spanish outfit, and therefore they are looking to offload him quickly.

If Chelsea do not end up signing Felix, the most likely option for him could become Newcastle United, according to Cadena SER.

Newcastle inquired about Felix before his departure to Chelsea, and possibly still hold an interest in his services.

The Magpies are currently sitting in a Champions League spot and already have the money from their new owners that can be invested to sign an expensive player.

Felix signed for Chelsea in the winter transfer window on a six-month loan that did not include an option to buy him. He ended up receiving a red card on his very first appearance for the blues.

Since then, he has scored just two goals for Chelsea, and is yet to register an assist to his name.

He has also lost his place in the starting lineup against Frank Lampard in the last two games, coming off the bench against Brighton & Hove Albion and Real Madrid.

With Chelsea languishing in 11th place after 31 games, Felix has no more than seven games to convince the Stamford Bridge board of what he can bring to the table.