Kevin De Bruyne is expected to complete a free transfer to the Serie A champions Napoli for the next two weeks.
The 33-year-old is planned for his last Premier League performance for Manchester City in Fulham, while the dethroned champions want to achieve a Champions League place on the last day of the season.
De Bruyne – who has spent 10 years in the Etihad Stadium and will have a statue in honor of him – will then negotiate with Napoli in the days after a contract for the coming campaign. The Belgian is supposed to have a two -year deal.
MLS Side Chicago Fire had presented interest, while Inter Miami initially kept his exploration rights. Teams of the Saudi Pro League did not receive the same encouragement from De Bruyne's camp as a year earlier.
Undoubtedly the best central midfielder since the Premier League start, De Bruyne wants to prove that he can still cut it at the highest level.
The approaching switch to Naples – where he and his wife married in 2017 – could see him standing in the Pep Guardiola Champions League in the city of Pep Guardiola.
'When the decision is shared and both agree, it is easier. If that is not the case, because Kevin would have liked to stay and the club decides not to do that, it is always difficult, “Guardiola said.
'They are many years, many days, many training sessions, many games, many pleasures and many bad moments; So many things that come together at a time when you will never be together again.
“Of course they will be there when we see each other, but in the day to day, when you start talking and see that place where he was … Oh God, he is no longer there.”
Scott McTominay inspired Napoli in the league title when they separated Inter on the last evening of the season by beating Cagliari 2-0. McTominay's Scotland teammate Billy Gilmour also played in midfield.
“I am happy with the way my life went into the city,” said De Bruyne. 'There are clear ups and downs, success, failure, injuries, whatever.
'But you have to take that and learn from things that are sometimes difficult, so that you cannot expect everything to always go 100 percent.
“So I am very happy with the way I have been as a person and player and I would say that I am still an old school football man, I play on intuition, creativity, passion and I am happy with that.”