JOSE MOURINHO is closing in on signing Houssem Aouar on a free transfer.
The Lyon playmaker, 24, was a long-term target for Arsenal and Liverpool.
Both Premier League clubs were heavily linked with a £40million-plus move, especially to the Emirates way back in 2018.
However, he stayed put with his boyhood French club - racking up 231 appearances - although just 16 of those have come this season as he was frozen out amid speculation over his future.
But according to Sky Italia, Aouar has reached an agreement to join Roma when his Lyon contract expires this summer.
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The deal is said to just need signatures before being completed.
That will come as a blow to Real Betis and even Manchester United, with both clubs said to be interested and monitoring the situation.
But Aouar looks set to join the Giallorossi and work under Mourinho at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma - who still have hopes of rising up from seventh to qualify for the Champions League - were first interested in the midfielder last summer.
Aouar joined the Lyon academy aged 11 in 2009 and made his senior first-team debut in February 2017.
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He was handed the No8 jersey as a teenager ahead of the 2017-18 season and was nominated for the Golden Boy award the following year.
Aouar forced his way into the 2019-20 Champions League Team of the Season as Lyon knocked Juventus and Manchester City out on the way to the semi-finals.
He earned one senior cap for France in a friendly in October 2020 - after twice pulling out of the squad with injury and Covid.
However, in March 2023 he switched international allegiance to Algeria, the homeland of his parents - and admitted he "regretted" playing for France.
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