Leicester have agreed a club record fee of €35m (£30m) with Sporting Lisbon for Islam Slimani and the Algeria striker is due to fly to England on Wednesday to complete a medical.
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Negotiations appeared to have reached an impasse when the Portuguese side insisted they would not sell their top scorer of last season for less than €40m. However, with Claudio Ranieri keen to add to his attacking options in readiness for their debut season in the Champions League, a compromise was reached on Tuesday night.
Slimani, who scored 27 times in the Portuguese league last season as Sporting finished runners-up to Benfica, will now leave Algeria’s training camp as they prepare for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho to sign for the Premier League champions.
West Bromwich Albion had a bid rejected in the past week, although it is understood that the Algiers-born player favoured a move to the King Power Stadium to link up with his international team-mate Riyad Mahrez.
Slimani, who moved to Portugal in 2013 from the Algerian side CR Belouizdad, scored twice for his country at the 2014 World Cup. Having already added the Nigeria forward Ahmed Musa, Leicester have been in the market for another striker for some time and also inquired about the availability of the Argentinian Guido Carrillo of Monaco.
