Barcelona rejected January loan return for Joao Felix | OneFootball

Former Atletico Madrid and Barcelona forward Joao Felix completed a deadline day move out of Chelsea and he could have ended up back in Catalonia.

The Portuguese star has struggled for minutes at Chelsea since making a permanent return to Stamford Bridge last summer and the club opted to loan him to AC Milan.

A six-month loan contract at the San Siro continues Felix’s merry-go-round career with the former Benfica forward now playing for four teams in less than three seasons.

Felix’s road to London was a complicated one, after 3.5 years of trying to make it work at Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone, he made an initial loan move to Chelsea in January 2023, where he started off well, before losing his spot in the team towards the end of the season.

He returned to Atletico Madrid, before Barcelona negotiated a loan for him last season, which also fell flat.

Despite Felix’s public proclamations of wanting to remain in Barcelona, the club were unconvinced over his consistency, and he once again went back to Madrid.

The sense from both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona was of relief when Chelsea eventually lured him away from La Liga in 2024 and his chance of another Barcelona spell was blocked last month.

As per reports from Diario Sport, super agent Jorge Mendes reached out to the Barcelona hierarchy, before the deal with AC Milan was completed.

However, there was no appetite from Barcelona to reunite with Felix on loan, as Hansi Flick looks to move in a different direction, with Felix almost symbolic of Barcelona’s lack of cohesion in the transfer market in recent years.

Felix’s latest loan does not include a purchase clause, meaning he is expected back at Chelsea in June, with the Premier League club facing a call on his future under Enzo Maresca.