On Tuesday, Lyon’s club president Jean-Michel Aulas said Alexandre Lacazette’s future was still undecided but it seems he has a hankering for Atletico Madrid and has now agreed a deal ‘verbally’ despite the fact they can’t buy players.

Lacazette, who has been at Lyon for 14 years, is their talisman in attack and has netted 35 goals in 44 matches across all competitions this season. With progression in terms of goalscoring stats, speculation about the forward’s future continues to increase. Arsenal have been heavily linked with a move but he’s identified Atletico for a number of reasons as a potential destination in the future.

When questioned he said, “Yes, I like them. They’ve got great players, a great manager, a good fanbase and Antoine [Griezmann] is there.

“We’ll see what happens at the end of the season and I’ll think about it then.”

“There are things, but the press talk about a lot of clubs, but I trust what my agent tells me and we’ll see,” Lacazette continued.

Despite this though, he remained firm with his stance that he wouldn’t just leave the club ‘for the sake of going’.

Aulas has already admitted that if the circumstances are right and he is indeed making the move to a top European side like previously stated, Lacazette would be granted his wish to leave. He then told L’Equipe, “Alex has a verbal agreement with a club, Atletico, so, there is no certainty, because we have to wait to see if the Court of Arbitration for Sport will lift their recruitment ban.

“There have already been two contacts with Atletico Madrid for Alexandre Lacazette.

“We have accepted the demand from Alex to discuss exclusively with this club, but the other side of the coin is that this exclusivity requires them to meet our conditions.”

Atletico Madrid are currently banned from buying players after they were found guilty of breaking international transfer rules for U16s. They have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a decision is expected at some point this month.