Olympique Lyonnais are close to reaching an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur over the sale of their France international goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, president Jean-Michel Aulas revealed on Monday.
The transfer is expected to cost Spurs 15 million euros (US$18.8 million), which was the minimum fee demanded by Lyon.
Lloris’ departure is linked to the sale of Tottenham’s Croatian midfielder Luka Modric to Real Madrid for a fee of about 30 million euros, which was announced earlier on Monday.
“The sale of Modric from Tottenham to Madrid is important, as is the amount of the transfer,” Aulas said.
“It’s true that on Sunday we had a lot of contact with [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy. Things progressed during these talks, both qualitatively and quantitatively, but nothing’s concrete yet. I’ve informed Hugo of these discussions. We’ll have to be a bit patient to find out. The decision belongs to Hugo, who, I think, will be approached by Tottenham very soon. The clubs’ positions have moved closer together,” he said.
Aulas also confirmed that France international striker Bafetimbi Gomis, who has scored 36 league goals since joining the club from AS Saint-Etienne three years ago, is the subject of serious interest from more than one English Premier League outfit.
“There are concrete proposals from several clubs across the [English] Channel,” he said, with Fulham believed to be one of the sides in the running for his signature.
The Lyon president was speaking at the unveiling of new Lyon signings Steed Malbranque, who has joined on a one-year contract, and Fabian Monzon, who arrived from OGC Nice in a swap deal involving Jeremy Pied on Sunday.
Prior to the arrivals of Malbranque and Pied, Lyon’s only other summer signing had been Serbian defender Milan Bisevac from Paris Saint-Germain.
However, as the club seeks to cut costs after missing out on Champions League qualification, several players have moved on, including Kim Kallstrom, Ederson and John Mensah, while leftback Aly Cissokho has joined Valencia.
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