Atletico Madrid are close to signing Joao Felix, the highly rated young Benfica forward, in an extraordinary £107.3 million deal.

Felix has attracted interest from a host of leading European clubs, including Manchester City and Manchester United, but Atletico have agreed to trigger his £107.3m buy-out clause and hope to conclude a deal imminently.

The 19-year-old is in Madrid to finalise a move, which would make him the fifth most expensive footballer of all time after Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.

The transfer could be completed in the next 48 hours and it remains to be seen what impact Felix’s impending move will have on France forward Antoine Griezmann’s future at Atletico. Felix is represented by agent Moreira de Sa but Jorge Mendes has been helping to broker the deal. Mendes’s agency, Gestifute, have dismissed claims Mendes stands to earn £32.18m from the transfer.

City had been monitoring Felix’s situation but they were reluctant to pay his release clause, which was almost £50 million more than their club record outlay on Riyad Mahrez.