Nottingham Forest will beat Burnley and Wigan to the signing of £25m-rated 21-year-old Alfa Semedo.
The Benfica midfielder had been linked with a loan move to Premier League Burnley earlier in the week, before reports in Portugal suggested Forest had stolen a march in the race for his signature.
Semedo’s representative Sebastião Adilé has now revealed to O Jogo that Forest will sign the Bissau-Guinean youngster on a season-long loan, though it is claimed that there is no option to buy him inserted into the deal.
“There is already an agreement with Nottingham Forest, it’s closed for a one-year loan with no purchase option,” he said.
The report says Forest have sent their own representatives over to Lisbon to seal the deal, before Semedo flies to England to complete the details of his loan move.
Semedo is highly-rated at the Portugese giants, but was sent out on loan to Espanyol last season having fallen down the pecking order following the departure of Rui Vitoria.
His last outing for the Spanish club came in the 2-0 defeat against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in late March that was his third outing for the Catalan outfit.
Before moving to Espanyol, Semedo played eight times for Benfica last term, with three of those coming in the Champions League.
Forest are due back in England on Saturday night after completing their week-long pre-season trip to Spain, before they head out to Greece at the end of next week to face Atromitos and Olympiacos.
Semedo would become Forest’s third signing of the summer and new boss Sabri Lamouchi’s second arrival, after Tiago Silva completed his move from Feirense on Friday .
