Sevilla's right-back Daniel Alves will become a Chelsea player today. The Brazilian international has already agreed terms and will swap Spanish football for Stamford Bridge in a deal that should be worth in excess of €30m (£21.5m).

Alves is determined that he will leave Sevilla only for London, despite the Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón inquiring about the full-back. Calderón, though, will take comfort from the belief that Chelsea's securing Alves will allow Madrid to finally reach an agreement over the purchase of Arjen Robben, for whom the Spanish club have offered €30m. Madrid are desperate to force that deal through before the weekend. So far, however, their hopes have been unfulfilled.

Representatives of Chelsea joined Sevilla's director-general José María Cruz at the TRYP Gran Fenix hotel in Madrid last night in an attempt to finalise the deal for Alves. Cruz's role in major transfers at Sevilla is invariably limited to drawing up contracts. He does not become involved until the basis of a deal has been struck, with negotiations undertaken by the club president José María del Nido - a man famous for driving a hard bargain. Two summers ago, he made a €55m profit on the sales of Sergio Ramos and Julio Baptista to Real Madrid, while last year he rejected a £16m offer from Liverpool for Alves.

At that time, Del Nido verbally agreed to allow Alves to leave this summer if Sevilla received an offer that was "right" for both parties and his hand has been forced by Alves's public insistence that he wants to move on, having won the Copa del Rey and the Uefa Cup in the most successful year in the club's history.

"I want to continue growing as a player and if that has to be somewhere else, then it will be somewhere else," Alves said. Nor has the Sevilla president been able to spark the bidding war he intended when quoting a figure of €40m to Madrid at the weekend. Sources close to Alves insist the full-back is adamant he will join only Jose Mourinho's side and he has informed Sevilla of his intentions. The Brazilian has told friends that he has already agreed contract terms with Chelsea.

Del Nido boasted publicly that he had rejected two €30m-plus offers at the weekend and is determined not to lose face over the sale. Last night Sevilla were understood to be discussing the best way of presenting the deal to fans, with Del Nido likely to talk up the headline figure, as he did with the sale of Sergio Ramos and José Antonio Reyes to Arsenal.

Yesterday, Alves was left out of Sevilla's squad to face AEK Athens in the Champions League qualifier at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium to ensure he is not cup-tied when he joins Chelsea. Although that made sound financial sense for Sevilla, the decision was Alves's. "Dani told me he was not in the right frame of mind to play," said Sevilla's coach Juande Ramos, "I cannot handcuff someone and force them to come to work." Alves's absence was not in itself indicative of an imminent move, but the deal was all but sealed last night.

Madrid had hoped to gain an advantage over Chelsea by approaching Sevilla over Alves and using their interest as leverage in the Robben deal or as retaliation for Chelsea's stubbornness in negotiations over the Dutch winger. That plan fell down on Alves's determination to join Chelsea but Madrid remain hopeful that a deal for Robben can now be brought closer.

The Dutchman has told team-mates he wants to go to the Bernabéu, while strategic leaks from inside Madrid insist that his signing is a matter of hours away. The problem is, they have said that before.