Atletico Madrid are reportedly closing in on the signing of Olympique Lyonnais forward Moussa Dembele, seeing him as an alternative for Arkadiusz Milik, who is now not close to joining the La Liga side.
Dembele will come as a direct replacement to Diego Costa, who terminated his contract a few weeks ago after not playing enough for Atletico.
Lyon sporting director Juninho revealed the Frenchman's desire to leave, telling Telefoot that "Moussa came to see me. He thinks that this is the moment to change teams, that he has lost a bit of motivation."
"This was not something we foresaw. I like him a lot. Keeping someone who does not really want to keep up the intensity through the next five months - that is not ideal."
"We are in talks with Atletico, I think that Moussa has found an agreement with Atletico."
Atletico have a very frantic schedule in the second half of the season, especially with their latest game being called off, and so Diego Simeone needs plenty of squad players to be able to rotate his side even more and stay on top of the La Liga table.
As a result of Dembele being set to leave the club, Juninho spoke of targets to replace him, hinting that Leicester City forward Islam Slimani may be ideal.
"Slimani is a player we appreciate a lot, but he's one of a few possibilities."
"Halfway through the season, it's not always easy to find a striker to play for six months or a year and a half. It is expensive."
He concluded by saying "We are looking at other players. We spoke with [Slimani] at the start of the season, we had almost reached an agreement. He wants to come and wear our jersey."
