‘Special’ 23-year-old left out of training match after claims he could join Tottenham this summer

Forward Joao Felix has been left out of a training at Atletico Madrid amid interest from Tottenham Hotspur.

A report from Spanish source El Desmarque has shared the latest snub for the Portuguese star.

Pre-seasons are beginning across Europe with signings finally meeting their new teammates.

At Tottenham, James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario are still on their summer breaks.

However, they’ll be joining up with the rest of the Spurs squad very soon.

They could be joined by Manor Solomon soon, as he prepares to have his medical at the club.

It’s also a time of the year when managers decide on who they want to keep at the club and who can go.

Diego Simeone appears to have already made his mind up about Joao Felix.

Felix was left out of a training match by Simeone, which could give Tottenham a reason to move for the 23-year-old.

He’s still got plenty of scope to improve and needs a new challenge having fallen out of favour at Atleti.

Tottenham target Felix dropped in Atletico training

The report from El Desmarque has shared more details on what happened in Atletico’s training.

In a ‘morning technical test’ – essentially an intra-squad friendly – Felix was initially left on the bench.

He was later brought on as a substitute, but it’s not a good sign that he one of the first 22 players Simeone wanted to pick.

The ‘special’ attacker was on loan at Chelsea for the second half of last season.

On his debut, he looked like the brightest player on the pitch against Fulham and was unlucky not to score.

However, he summed up Chelsea’s luck last season by picking up a straight red card for a poor challenge on Kenny Tete and picked up a three-game ban.

Felix being left out of training at Atletico might accelerate this exit this summer and Tottenham will now have to consider whether to act.

He could offer a handy alternative to Dejan Kulusevski or Son Heung-min and is capable of playing across the front line.