Manchester United are hopeful of completing the signing of the Villarreal defender Eric Bailly after agreeing to pay a fee that could reach up to £30m.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic having agreed personal terms for a one-year contract at Old Trafford, José Mourinho’s attention has now turned to strengthening his central defence and Bailly is his primary target. United have offered around £15m up front for the Ivory Coast international but a number of performance-related clauses could see the eventual fee reach £30m.

That has not been accepted by Villarreal, although they have indicated they would be happy to sell the 22-year-old to United and are negotiating over the structure of the deal.

Leicester and Arsenal have also registered an interest in signing Bailly but Manchester City are understood to no longer be in the race due to their continuing negotiations with Athletic Bilbao over the French defender Aymeric Laporte.

Bailly joined Villarreal for around £4m in January 2015 as a replacement for Gabriel, who had been signed by Arsenal. Bailly was not selected in the Ivory Coast matchday squad for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gabon on Saturday night (Ivory Coast won 2-1). He played in all six matches when they won the tournament last year.

Bailly moved to Spain at the age of 17 after being spotted at a youth tournament in Burkina Faso and came through Espanyol’s youth team. He played just five times in La Liga for the first team before joining Villarreal but has become a regular in the side that finished fourth last season and reached the semi-finals of the Europa League.

Bailly was absent due to a thigh injury for the second leg against Liverpool at Anfield when Villarreal were eliminated after losing 3-0 and has also suffered from shoulder problems in the past. But he is an athletic and powerful defender with huge potential who would add competition to Daley Blind and Chris Smalling at the heart of United’s back line.