Bruno Lage on why João Félix didn’t rejoin Benfica: “I’m starting to believe...” | OneFootball

Bruno Lage revealed that it was practically impossible to sign João Félix due to Chelsea’s demands, the club that held the rights to the Portuguese forward, who ended up moving to Al Nassr in the last transfer window. The former Benfica coach gave an interview to the newspaper A Bola, where he discussed various topics from his time at the club, including the failure to sign the Portuguese international.

"I don’t know if João was the most talked-about name, because Moussa was probably mentioned even more and even made several posts almost suggesting he was coming, but Feyenoord set conditions and even renewed the player’s contract", Bruno Lage began, recalling another player who didn’t end up at Benfica this summer.

Bruno Lage continued with more details: "It was impossible for us to get there. But interestingly, we still managed to identify a player of enormous quality, Dodi. I think that was also a very successful signing. But regarding João, I’d like to say that Ivanovic was never a backup option and our idea was to have four players for that position, as I always considered Henrique Araújo among those four up front: Henrique Araújo, Pavlidis, Ivanovic, and João."

"I started to believe that João could come. He was arriving in Portugal and I was about to go on vacation. I was at the airport when I received his statements and I called him. I spoke with him and told him that if he said that publicly, he was opening the door and I would talk to the president to make his wish come true, as it was the wish of everyone," Bruno Lage revealed about the Félix process.

The former Benfica coach concluded as follows: "But Chelsea, who paid what they paid for João, were always uncompromising regarding the amount to be paid, and it would have been very difficult for Benfica, despite having done almost the impossible to bring back a homegrown player. João showed a huge desire to return to Benfica and the whole team understood the squad I was trying to build, where he could be a very important piece, but Chelsea’s demands were impossible."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.