Lyon striker Moussa Dembele is believed to be "very close" to joining Atletico Madrid.
The former Celtic star has been identified as the ideal replacement for Diego Costa, who was given a free transfer this month.
The Liga giants submitted an official offer of a loan with an option to buy on Thursday but Lyon looked to negotiate the eventual transfer fee.
According to L'Équipe and RMC Sport, Dembele is very keen to make the move to Diego Simeone's title chasers, who could also offer him Champions League football.
Now Marca is reporting that a deal is "very close", with the 24-year-old set to join on loan this month.
There will be no obligation to buy included in the deal, meaning that Atleti will be able to negotiate with OL if they want to buy Dembele permanently.
French outlet Footmercato, who broke the story of Atletico Madrid's interest, have put the option to buy in the region of £32.5m.
If that is taken up then Celtic can expect a significant windfall having included a sell-on clause as part of the deal that took the striker to Lyon.
The Ligue 1 giants are believed to be lining up Islam Slimani as a temporary replacement and coach Rudi Garcia seemed pessimistic about keeping Dembele in his weekly press conference.
He said: "He (Dembele) is one of the important players. Of course, we prefer to keep him. We’ll see.
"What is certain is that if players have an inclination to leave, particularly Moussa, they’d have to be replaced.
"To me that’s only logical.
"A loan with option to buy? I don’t know, it’s not the most important thing. I’d prefer him to stay."
