Joao Felix has confirmed that he “gave up a significant amount of money” in order to join Barcelona on loan from Atletico Madrid earlier this month.
The 23-year-old is said to have rejected offers from Manchester United and Liverpool in order to make his ‘dream’ switch to Camp Nou before the summer deadline.
Felix has made an impressive start to life at Barcelona, netting three times and providing one assist in three appearances, including two goals and an assist in Tuesday’s 5-0 win over Royal Antwerp in the Champions League.
There have been suggestions that the Portugal international will collect just €400,000 (£347,000) during his loan spell due to the Catalan outfit’s financial issues.
Felix has revealed that he took a huge pay-cut in order to secure a move to Xavi‘s side, as he “needed a change” due to his strained relationship with Atletico head coach Diego Simeone.
“Yes, the truth is that I gave up a significant amount of money from my salary. But well, I needed a change, I needed to go somewhere where I could play my football and as I said I always thought this would be the ideal place,” the forward told Mundo Deportivo.
“Things are going well and I had to make that effort to get back to the joy of playing…. I honestly didn’t expect it. I thought, and I still think, that this is the ideal place for me but the truth is that things are going very, very well and I didn’t expect them to go so well. May they continue like this and may it be like this until the end.”
Felix, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Chelsea, was also quizzed on why he found it difficult to perform at his best under Simeone.
“That’s clear to everyone, football is like that, whoever is doing badly has to move on. I’ve done it before for Chelsea and I’ve done it now for Barcelona because I wasn’t good there,” he said.
“I didn’t adapt to the ideas of the club and the coach, but I’ve always tried to do the best I could and I’ve had very good moments there as well.”