Chelsea forward Joao Felix has joined AC Milan on loan until the end of the season. The Italian club paid a £5m loan fee for the 25-year-old Portugal international, with no obligation to buy. This move came about as part of a player exchange deal between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, with Conor Gallagher joining the Spanish club for £33m.
Chelsea forward Joao Felix has completed a loan move to AC Milan until the end of the season. The Italian side have paid a £5m loan fee for Felix, with no obligation to buy the 25-year-old Portugal international in the summer. The deal, which was only announced on Tuesday, saw the required paperwork submitted in advance of Monday's Serie A and Premier League transfer deadline.
Felix joined Chelsea on a loan spell in August 2023, having spent the second half of the 2022-23 season at Stamford Bridge. The Felix deal came about in unusual circumstances as Chelsea and Atletico Madrid exchanged players, with academy graduate Conor Gallagher going to Spain for £33m. Chelsea's talks to sign Atletico striker Samu Omorodion collapsed, with the Felix deal seemingly a replacement to enable Atletico to find the required funds to complete the Gallagher transfer. Gallagher had entered the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge so Chelsea wanted to sell to generate profit and avoid losing him on a free transfer in the summer of 2025.Felix has only started three Premier League matches this campaign, though he regularly featured in cup competitions, scoring seven goals. He initially joined Atletico Madrid in July 2019 in a deal which at the time was the fifth-most expensive transfer in history. He spent the 2023-24 season on loan at Barcelona before his move back to Stamford Bridge last summer. Milan, eighth in Serie A, play Roma in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday and have a two-legged play-off against Feyenoord in the Champions League this month. The writing was on the wall for Joao Felix when he barely celebrated his two goals against Morecambe in the FA Cup third round in early January. The Portugal international has been 'the man for the small occasions' at Chelsea, the Telegraph match report said. It highlights how Felix mostly only starts against lesser opposition in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Conference League under manager Enzo Maresca. The main reason he has struggled for minutes is Cole Palmer's presence as a number 10, while the fact Christopher Nkunku is not joining Manchester United or Bayern Munich is another reason to send him out on loan. It's a strange situation given the attacker once cost £113m when signed by Atletico Madrid in 2018, and was given a seven-year deal by Chelsea just last summer. Having previously been on loan at Chelsea and Barcelona while he was an Atletico player, he is looking at his third temporary home as he tries to realize the potential he showed when first breaking through at Benfica
AC Milan Joao Felix Chelsea Loan Transfer Conor Gallagher Atletico Madrid Serie A Premier League
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