Julien Laurens revealed on the Jim White Show just how close the Whites are to being taken over by the Qatari Royal Family

The Qatar Royal Family are closing in on a deal to buy Leeds United, according to reports.

Rumours began to surface at the start of the week suggesting Qatar Sports Investments billionaire president Nasser Al-Khelaifi would be meeting Andrea Radrizzani in Doha with a view to buying the Whites.

getty 2 Nasser Al-Khelaifi, President of PSG, is closing in on Leeds United

Although rumours of this this meeting in the Qatari capital city have been quashed, leading French journalist Julien Laurens told talkSPORT a deal is actually tantalisingly close.

“The owners of PSG, the Qatar Royal Family, are very keen on buying Leeds,” Laurens revealed to Jim White on talkSPORT.

“They know the owner there very well, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is the PSG chairman and who is very close to the Qatar Royal Family and he is very good friends with Radrizzani [the Leeds owner].

“Just to explain it quickly, there is obviously big competition between the Qatar Royal Family and the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, who own Manchester City.

getty 2 Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani spent big to try and secure promotion

“And they have expanded their brand everywhere in the world; in Japan, in Australia, in the U.S and the MLS and in Spain as well.

“And in Qatar, they are thinking ‘well, we should be the same really’ to expand the brand and get a few clubs.

“And Leeds would very much be part of that.

“I think they have been in interested in the English market for a long time – they also looked at AS Roma – but it looks like Leeds ticks a lot of the boxes for them.

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“I would be very surprised if that takeover doesn’t actually happen. I think it will happen sooner rather than later.”

Al-Khelaifi bought PSG back in 2011 and has since gone on to splash the cash on some of the biggest stars in football, including Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

Whoever does own Leeds will still have Marcelo Bielsa in charge in Yorkhire, after the Argentine confirmed his desire to stay, despite missing out on promotion.