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Ron Walker
Digital Football Journalist @ronnabe
Last Updated: 22/03/19 11:04am
Manchester City are reportedly set to win the race to sign Joao Felix. But who is Benfica’s latest starlet?
Felix has hit the news in recent months with reports suggesting that Manchester United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are among the elite European sides who have the 19-year-old in their sights.
However, City look set to win the battle for his signature with British newspapers reporting on Friday that Pep Guardiola’s side are closing in on a deal worth £105m.
There are few better clubs for the talented youngster than Benfica, which can list David Luiz, Nemanja Matic, Jan Oblak and even Rui Costa among players they have matured before moving on, but what can City expect should they sign Felix?
Why does everyone want him?
Felix plays off a striker rather than as an out-and-out forward himself, but that has not stopped him scoring 10 times in 18 league appearances for Benfica this season, as well as four in seven for Portugal U21s during their European Qualifiers.
Since becoming the youngest Benfica scorer in a Lisbon derby with barely half an hour of league football under his belt, Felix has already begun to live up to the excitement around him as he rose through the youth ranks with Portugal’s most successful club side.
But he will not come cheap – his recently-signed new deal in Portugal comes with a €120m (£105m) release clause attached, with the club’s president dead-set on winning the Champions League with a team full of homegrown players.
What’s his style?
There have been comparisons between Felix and Kaka – who he lists as his boyhood hero. Both are good passers with a strong eye for goal, and can play anywhere in behind the striker.
It’s at inside forward where he has been at his best, using his trusty right foot to good effect when cutting in from the left wing.
However, under new Benfica manager Bruno Lage, he has been moved into attack in a 4-4-2 alongside top scorer Haris Seferovic, instead of being on the left of a 4-3-3 as he was under previous boss Rui Vitoria. Since that move into the middle, he has scored six in his last seven games.
Goalscoring is certainly what Felix does best; of his 14 goal contributions this season, 10 have been scored by him, while he has made the other four.
But having been let go by Porto because of his slight frame as a youngster, his physique is still a priority for Benfica to improve, and he has been given a special regime to improve his strength this season.
Strong pedigree
As above, Felix was let go by Porto as a 15-year-old as they looked to cash in on a number of their youth players, and a young Joao was seen as being too slight.
A late growth spurt set him back on a level playing field among his peers, and by 2017 he was already being talked up in the national Portuguese press as the next Bernardo Silva, still a year shy of his first-team debut.
After moving to Lisbon he made his debut for Benfica’s reserve team at the age of 16, but showed no signs of nerves to score three times from midfield in 12 games that season in LigaPro, Portugal’s second tier.
A year later he was a regular scorer as their youth team lifted the Campeonato Nacional de Juniores, Portugal’s equivalent of the Premier Academy League, and that would ultimately seal his ascent to the first team at the Estadio da Luz.
Praise from on-high
Benfica striker Haris Seferovic recently spoke highly of Felix, but was sure to point out Benfica have other options in attack with the youngster stealing the limelight this season.
Last season’s top scorer, striker Jonas, said of him: “He is a player who can show his potential to not just the fans of Benfica, but to fans across Europe. He is a boy who has enormous quality and a calmness with the ball in the feet.”
And ex-Benfica hero Nuno Gomes added: “Joao Felix is very strong, but still has a long way to go until he reaches the level of the main Portuguese team. However, nowadays everything can happen very fast, as we have seen with Renato Sanches.”
There have been words of warning, though. Bino, a forwards coach in the Porto academy where Felix progressed as a youngster, said: “When we are told that we have a lot of talent, we do not need to run too much, because we think that talent will take us wherever we want. It was a little bit of what has been happening with Joao at Porto.
“We have to be very careful, we are in an era where a player is very quickly valued – and sometimes it is not easy to see how every day in the newspaper you are being called the best, even at his age.”
