Newcastle United are close to signing versatile Eibar player Florian Lejeune after a breakthrough, according to the Mirror.
The newspaper’s transfer centre blog claims the north-east giants are on the verge of making Lejeuene, 26, their second signing of the signing following the arrival of Christian Atsu from Chelsea.
The Mirror report that Newcastle will pay £10million up front for the versatile Frenchman, who can play either in a midfield enforcer role or at centre-back.
It is said that manager Rafael Benitez will imminently secure a “transfer breakthrough” as the club continue to revamp their squad following promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt.
Former France Under-20 international Lejeune joined Eibar for £1.3million from Manchester City last summer and was a mainstay of the team that finished 10th in La Liga in the recently completed domestic season.
Eibar made 37 appearances in all competitions, 34 of which came in league matches, and has seemingly done enough to secure an immediate return to a Premier League club.
The Frenchman joined City in the summer of 2015 but did not play a single match for the club as he was loaned out to Girona for the entirety of the 2015-16 season.
He was capped seven times by France Under-20s, but has never been included in his nation’s senior squad.