Edouard Mendy is set to have a medical on Monday ahead of joining Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli.
The fee for the Chelsea goalkeeper is expected to be around £16m as he becomes the latest player to join the Gulf state’s league.
An agreement for team-mate Kalidou Koulibaly to join him at Al-Ahli is also in place, for £17m, with the deal possibly confirmed later this week.
Fuelled by the billions of its Public Investment Fund, which now owns four of the SPL’s leading clubs, Saudi Arabia is accelerating plans to create one of the world’s leading football leagues.
N’Golo Kante left Chelsea on a free transfer to sign for Al-Ittihad last week while midfielder Ruben Neves has moved from Wolves to Al Hilal for £47m. Hakim Ziyech is also expected to sign for Al-Nassr from Chelsea for £8m.
Fulham manager Marco Silva has also received a “lucrative” offer to join Al-Hilal.
Since January, the Saudi league has attracted Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Al Nassr, and Karim Benzema, who left Real Madrid for Al-Ittihad, although there were failed attempts to convince Lionel Messi with a mega contract. The Argentine instead joined Inter Miami.
The swathe of recent big-name signings has drawn concern from some corners of European football. The revelation that Bernardo Silva was being tempted away from Manchester City with a lucrative offer prompted pundit Jamie Carragher to tweet: “Bernardo Silva is in his peak years and has been one of the best players in Europe for the last five years!
“I wasn’t worried about the Saudi League taking players in their 30s, a touch worried with players below the elite (Neves) but if this happens it feels like a game changer.”
However, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin insisted he was unconcerned by recent developments. “No, no, no,” Ceferin said when asked about recent shift of Europe’s top players moving to SPL clubs. “I think that it’s mainly a mistake for Saudi Arabian football.
“Why is that a problem for them? Because they should invest in academies, they should bring coaches, and they should develop their own players.”
He added: ”The system of buying the players that almost ended their career is not the system that develops football. It was a similar mistake in China when they all brought players who are at the end of their career.”
Gary Neville has called for the Premier League to halt transfers between Chelsea and SPL clubs after it was claimed that the Saudi PIF held stakes in Clearlake Capital, the privately equity firm that owns Chelsea.
However, i revealed that Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and officials at Clearlake provided evidence of the ownership structure before the Premier League cleared the takeover deal last year.
The Premier League also remains confident that its new Fair Market Value rules would prevent any clubs from selling players for overinflated transfer fees.
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