Benfica forward Joao Felix has officially made his move from the Lisbon squad to Madrid to join Atletico, Benfica will receive a record breaking transfer fee of €126M, the highest transfer fee ever received by the club and for by any team in the Portuguese League. Atletico Madrid will pay Benfica €30M this season with the club receiving the remaining €96M in installment payments in the future. The additional €6M above Felix's €120M buyout clause is interest on the installment plan. Super agent Jorge Mendes will receive €12M from the deal while FC Porto who Felix spent time with in his youth before being released and joining Benfica will receive €1.2M. These costs will not be deducted from the money Benfica receives as Atletico will be responsible for covering them. Atletico have signed Felix to a seven year contract and have also added their highest buyout clause ever for a club player at €350M.
Benfica have acquired Real Madrid striker Raul de Tomas for €20M and signed him for five seasons with a buy out clause of €100M. The 24 year old striker spent last season on loan with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano, appearing in 33 league games and scoring 14 times. De Tomas has been a member of Real Madrid since 2004 when he joined their youth side but his only appearance with the main club occurred in the 2014/15 season as he appeared in a Copa del Rey game. De Tomas will earn an annual salary of €2M with the Lisbon club and will be counted on to take up the spot of striker Jonas who is set to announce his retirement from football.
Benfica will be hosting an open practice for club members on Saturday July 6, 2019 at 10:30am at their Seixal caixa futebol campus. The practice will take place at campus #1 on a first come first serve basis. Club members are able to acquire tickets at a variety of locations from July 4 at 9am to July 5 at 9pm. This will be the clubs first open practice to club members for the 2019/20 season.
