JOÃO FÉLIX: THE TALENT THAT NEEDED THE RIGHT HOME

JOAO FELIX

Few players in football match his technical gifts. Félix is a prodigy when it comes to his first touch and his relationship with the ball. The question was never whether he had the quality. It was where he could use it.

THE PLAYER

Félix isn’t a winger or a pure striker. He’s a creator who links play and drifts between the lines, and his game is built on dribbling, passing and shooting in the space just behind the centre-forward. He receives on the half-turn, drops a shoulder, then picks the final ball or takes the shot himself. At the World Cup, even in a quiet tournament for goals, he made 12 line-breaking passes and 14 take-ons in three games.

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BENFICA: THE GOLDEN BOY

Félix made his first-team debut on 18 August 2018 in a 2-0 win at Boavista, and finished that season as a league champion. The rise was dazzling. He became the youngest player to score in the Lisbon derby and later contributed 11 goals and eight assists in the last 19 games to help clinch the title. His partnership with Haris Seferović and a Europa League hat-trick against Frankfurt made him one of Europe’s most coveted players. He scored 20 goals in 43 matches that season.

ATLÉTICO MADRID: THE STRUGGLE

Atlético signed him in July 2019 and gave him the No. 7 shirt previously worn by Antoine Griezmann. The fee was €126 million, a club record. The early signs were bright: he scored against Real Madrid in Atlético’s 7-3 pre-season win.

Simeone’s system was the problem. His defensively rigid, high-intensity style proved hard for a fluid, creative forward, and Félix was asked to track back and press constantly. The numbers show the tension: he’d started 80 times, come on as a sub 42 times and been withdrawn 58 times, an enigma Simeone struggled to use as a focal point.

There were highs, though. He was part of the squad that won La Liga in 2020-21. Fans voted him Atlético’s Player of the Season in 2021-22. But across 131 appearances, he scored 34 goals, well short of what a €126m player is expected to deliver. Loan spells followed at Chelsea, Barcelona and Milan before Saudi Arabia. At Chelsea, he did add a Conference League medal in 2024-25.

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THE JESUS EFFECT

Jorge Jesus changed that. At Al-Nassr, he moved Félix closer to the penalty area as a second striker, the so-called “9.5” role, with freedom to move in the areas close to goal. The result was a team built around him. He scored 26 goals and set up 18 more as Al-Nassr won the 2025-26 Saudi title. His movement between the lines gave the team a new gear in transition, helped by a growing partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo.

It wasn’t easy at first. After his debut, Jesus said he’d been “completely out of it” at times and demanded better preparation. The bond that followed has become one of the most productive of Félix’s career.

BRINGING IT TO PORTUGAL

Jesus moved on to the national team after the World Cup, and the results followed. Félix completed 90 minutes in consecutive Portugal games for the first time, scoring in both wins against Wales and Norway. He has three goals and an assist in four Nations League games. With Ronaldo absent against Denmark, Félix was the creative centre of the attack.

THE CAVEAT

He’s still not a machine. He is still developing as a player, and there will be ebbs and flows, as the quiet World Cup showed, where he didn’t score in three starts. But when he’s on the pitch in his favourite areas, Joao Felix is sublime.

RIZZSPORTS VERDICT

The talent was visible at 19, when Benfica fans called him the golden boy. It took until 26, and Jesus, for the role to match it. Now he’s a Saudi champion and the focal point of Portugal’s attack.

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