Chelsea Exploring Return of Former Striker

 

Reports say Chelsea is getting closer to surprising Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix by getting them back together.
With the moves of Julian Alvarez, Conor Gallagher, and first Samu Omorodion, things have become more complicated over the past week.

For the domino effect to happen, Alvarez needs to finish his move from Manchester City to Madrid. Gallagher is already in Madrid, ready to leave Chelsea for Real Madrid.

On Sunday night, though, it became clear that Omorodion would not be moving to Chelsea because important parts of his planned contract could not be signed off on.

Several news sources say that means Chelsea and Atletico need to find another answer. Diego Simeone's team counted on making £34.5 million from that sale.

He celebrated when Joao Felix scored for Barcelona against Atletico Madrid on December 3, 2023.

While it is known that Felix is free to sign with another team this summer, Chelsea has yet to be said to be interested in the Portugal international.

Trade expert Fabrizio Romano said late Sunday night that talks have begun about Felix returning to Stamford Bridge, which was unexpected.

Felix scored four goals in 20 games across all competitions in the 2022–23 season but returned to Madrid instead of staying in West London.

Romano says that Jorge Mendes, his lawyer, is now in London to talk about getting him back to Chelsea. A deal will be finalized soon.

It is said that talks have hit a "key stage" and will likely move quickly from here on out since the deals with Alvarez and Gallagher are ready to be made public.

Romeo also says that Felix wanted to move permanently to Chelsea last summer, and the club's co-owners would have agreed to the deal.

Instead, the team's new head coach at the time, Mauricio Pochettino, is said to have stressed that he did not want to add the 24-year-old.

Felix later joined Barcelona on loan for a season, scoring 10 goals and setting up 6 others in 44 games across all categories.

If the deal goes through, it's unclear if Chelsea will still be looking for another center forward. Omorodion reportedly wanted to give Chelsea more physicality in the middle of their attack.