Load, aim, shoot. After Robert Lewandowski, with a double that helped Alavés come back, ended his bad streak, it is now the turn of the other forwards in Vallecas. No one has celebrated for as long as João Félix, who wants to get out of a worrying drought of more than two months, since September 19, still in short sleeves. The Portuguese is haunted by some bumps that have never allowed him to take off. In Barcelona, ??a preferred and sought-after destination for him, he tries to get rid of that label of eternal promise.
On Saturday, September 2, just after his presentation, João Félix had his first training session with Barcelona. The next day, with a single session with his new teammates, he made his Blaugrana debut in Pamplona. Expectation has always been intrinsic to the Portuguese striker’s career. However, the attacker has not always been able to meet that high bar since 124 million were paid for him in the summer of 2019 and he made the jump from Benfica to Atlético de Madrid. When he scored his double against Antwerp it seemed that João Félix had found his place in the world. He had gotten his way by arriving on loan to Barça on the last day of the market and had made a brilliant adaptation. Two months have passed and he hasn’t scored again.
Barça’s number 14 has gone eleven games in a row (ten of them as a starter) without scoring. His talent and individual quality are more than proven. Another thing is the efficiency of his plays or his final success. What at first were certainties, have now become questions. And there is no other reason than the lack of perseverance that had always characterized him.
It was never understood with Simeone and the divorce was a foregone conclusion. With Xavi that pretext is not valid, since the Egarense allows him to express himself starting from the left wing position but giving him freedom. The Portuguese has shone in a favorable context but he has not been able to establish himself as a football star when he has been needed most. Lewandowski missed three and a half games and the boy did not score. He also failed to score a goal coinciding with Raphinha’s absence.
João Félix does not appear among the best scorers in the League (only one, for Betis) nor among the best assistants (2, one for Marc Guiu on Athletic’s day) nor among the top 15 dribblers in the championship (he has 17, twenty less than Brian Zaragoza). He has stopped dead. He has also not scored in the two games for Portugal against Liechtenstein and Iceland. Coach Robert Martínez started him in both games and gave him 174 minutes.
João Félix was never a great scorer. Only at Benfica did he reach 20 goals in one season. At Atlético he barely averaged one goal every four games (34 in 131 appearances), an average that he did not improve in his five months at Chelsea (4 goals). In his first two starts with Barcelona, ??the Portuguese scored three goals but there has been no continuity, even though, having just turned 24, he should be reaching maturity.
It is not the first time that the forward finds the goal small. Last season he started out denied at the Colchonero club and went 14 blank games, although there he had already lost Cholo’s trust.
It happens now that the Portuguese plays two games every time he takes the field as he plays with the sword of Damocles of time hanging over him. He needs to demonstrate and convince, in addition to helping the Barcelona team win, that in June – if not before – he will have to decide whether to try to keep the player… and at what price.
Just before closing the loan to Can Barça, Atlético agreed to renew with the footballer for two more seasons, until 2029. The red and whites expected to deposit the 80 million that they had left to amortize on their investment, something that seems very far from the expectations. Barcelona economic possibilities for a player who has not yet fully established himself at Barcelona. João Félix must pull the trigger.
