Portugal’s Next Superstar
Portugal is set for the future and they have a 19-year-old rising star named Joao Felix who is ready to learn from Cristiano Ronaldo and be the country’s next hero. In the 2018/19 Campaign for Benfica, the Portuguese prospect tallied 20 goals and delivered 11 assists in 43 appearances.
The young forward showed a lot of promise in his first season as a professional in the Liga Nos for Benfica. Felix was able to help the team achieve winning the league and capture the title the Club has dominated for decades. With the opportunity of leaving Benfica for a bigger club, there is no better time for Fernando Santos to call upon his new weapon and give him a chance to learn from his Portuguese teammates and gain experience playing with some of the worlds best talent. The Portugal national team have 3 games against Switzerland, Serbia, and Lithuania where Felix will see some playing time and get his feet wet. With no real international experience, I would love to see how he can be integrated into the attacking and maybe see him put a goal or two in the back of the net.
Youth Career
Since he began with the youth squads in Benfica starting in the 16/17 Campaign Felix has shown consistent and exponential growth in his skills and his scoring ability. During his 16/17 season with Benfica B, he scored 9 goals with 1 appearance but was not able to make a big contribution during his 17/18 season as he was only able to put 5 goals and 5 assists and with little playing time along with injuries Felix was becoming a concern. Either way, Benfica wanted him on their senior squad and they saw the potential we never could see until now.
Best Games of Felix Career
Benfica 6: 0 Maritimo- Liga Nos
2 Goals & 1 Assist
Benfica 4: 2 Frankfurt – Europa League (The match that put him on the map)
3 Goals & 1 assist
Going Forward
The 19-year-olds name has come up in transfer rumors for the Manchester Giants with United reportedly willing to pay the $105M release clause that has been set.
What exactly does he bring to the table?
Felix is a quick and young forward who has great ability to make runs with or without the ball to maximize possessions. A proven scorer who you can depend on to put the ball past the goalie and is an incredible playmaker. Winning the league his first year as a pro is impressive but every big club is after the potential that he has shown. Many comparisons have been made but I believe he plays most similar to Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid. His game out of the set piece is impressive and is where he mostly tries to deliver his assists. Felix is young and continues to improve with each season that he plays and with a potential move to a big club you can only wonder what he can do under a world class coach. Felix has Mbappe potential to come out and dominate in one of europes top leagues and emerge as the next young star.
For Manchester City, they are set to sell Sane for $80-90M Which would then make Joao Felix about an extra $30M at the most and with 6 players set to leave and all the oil money we have the fee will be a slap on the wrist. Felix can come in and will most probably become a sub for Aguero unless Pep plans on playing two strikers up front this season which could potentially work. With the Defence looking to be in shambles this season, Felix can use his pace to be a Jamie Vardy type striker. Lethal scorer and strives in the counter-attack with pace. He has got great skills to dribble past defenders into open space to create chances for his team. Being a great playmaker as well City can use of his talents while being the x-factor piece the club has been looking for to lift a Champions League trophy.
As for Manchester United Felix can bring the same skill set but his minutes would spike in United as the talent and competition on the squad will be easy for him to be in the starting 11. With United, Felix gets the opportunity to help a rebuilding team while collecting multiple minutes and goals on his way there. With Pogba in the midfield and Rashford, the attack of United could benefit from a pacy playmaker to help put pressure on the opponent’s defense.
