REVEALED: Barcelona confirm Joao Felix’s remarkably small new salary after he agreed a mammoth pay cut from his time at Chelsea and Atletico… but now he’ll get a 900% rise in an FFP work-around

• Joao Felix moved to Barcelona from Atletico Madrid on loan on deadline day 
• The Portuguese forward has enjoyed a fine start to his time with Xavi’s side 
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’ 

The surprisingly low wages Joao Felix has been earning at Barcelona have been revealed, but the Portugal star is now set to receive a bumper pay rise.

Felix joined the Catalan giants on a season-long loan on deadline day after falling out-of-favour with Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid.

He has made a stunning start to life with Xavi’s side, scoring three goals and adding three assists in eight appearances in all competitions.

Barcelona’s financial problems over the past few years have been well-publicised, with the club activating what have become known as various ‘economic levers’ to plug reported debts of more than £1bn, while ensuring they can still spend in the transfer market. This has included selling off assets such as merchandise income and future TV rights.

And, according to reports in Spain, Felix has been impacted by their financial constraints, with the forward put on an annual salary of just €400,000 (£345,000) when he arrived.

The surprisingly low wages Joao Felix has been earning at Barcelona have been revealed

Felix (right) joined from Atletico Madrid after falling out-of-favour with Diego Simeone (left)

This equates to just £6,635 per-week, which is small fry for an elite footballer and much less than the reported several hundreds of thousands of pounds per-week his team-mates earn. 

The report goes onto claim Felix, who was desperate to move on from Atletico, was required to accept the small initial wage in order to get the deal done. 

Within the contract, there was a stipulation that his salary would be increased once Barcelona’s financial status allowed it.

This is now the case with Felix’s annual wages to bump up to €4million (£3.45million) for the rest of his season-long loan, with this measured as a 900 per cent increase.

However, his new salary of £66,345 per-week is still dramatically lower than the €280,000 per-week (£250,000) contract he was reportedly on at Atletico, and the 23-year-old admitted recently he had ‘given up a significant amount of money’ to make the move.

The new salary is not set to impact Barcelona’s FFP targets and the club’s vice-president Eduard Romeu confirmed the change and hailed Felix’s professionalism.

He told Spanish outlet L’Esportiu: ‘It’s true, Joao Felix has reduced his salary to €400,000 (£345,000) to join. It is the case of a person who has made a very important effort to join. 

‘It’s very nice to see this from a guy who was probably not at his best at his club, but here he has been magnificent.

‘Make no mistake about it, however, the club that gave Felix to us has an interest in this being a great showcase. Hopefully, at the end of the year, we will have the conflict of having to consider his continuity.’

Felix – who joined Atletico for €127m (£113m) in 2019 – still has six years left on his contract with the club.

He spent the second half of last season on loan with Chelsea, with the Blues covering his wages in full and forking out an £11m loan fee. 

Felix – who has made a stunning start to life at Barcelona – is now set to receive a 900 per cent increase in his salary which will see his wages rise from £6,635 per-week to £66,345 per-week

Barcelona have been keen to reduce wages in recent times as they try to battle heavy debts

Romeu also provided a wider outline of Barcelona’s current financial position and insisted they are making progress, albeit slowly, towards their targets.

He added: ‘There are two types of debt, those measured by La Liga and the global one. La Liga measures bank and club debts, which were €680m (£588m) in June 2021, €608m (£526m) in 2022 and €552m (£477m) in 2023. That’s why (La Liga president Javier) Tebas said we reduced the debt.

‘But for us, the debt is much more. When we arrived, the debt was about €1.35bn (£1.17bn)  Now, we’re just under €1.2bn (£1.04bn).

‘The ‘levers’ served to cover the drain on our finances and also to wipe out debt, which is my obsession.’

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