Chelsea and Arsenal in for Boufal.

Chelsea and Arsenal are both in contention to sign Sofiane Boufal from Lille but face competition from Barcelona and Atlético Madrid for the Morocco forward.

The French club have already indicated that Boufal, who joined from Angers last January for just €4m, will leave this summer, with the fee expected to be around €25m (£19.6m). A number of English clubs have been monitoring his progress as the 22-year-old scored 11 times in his first full top-flight season and won the award for Best African Player in Ligue 1.

But despite there being previous interest from Liverpool and Tottenham, so far only Arsenal and Chelsea have indicated that they would be willing meet Lille’s asking price, with Boufal’s agent confirming on Saturday that he has also held talks with teams in Spain.
We did have a meeting with the leadership of FC Barcelona in the last few weeks. There is an interest,” Yvan Le Mée told Le10 sport. “Now the reflection is whether Sofiane Boufal will go to Barcelona to compete with MSN (Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar) or should he go to a club where he is going to start matches and express his exceptional talent.

“We have also initiated discussions with three other clubs that interest us, but they either have or will change their coach or the coach is in charge of a national team at the Euros. In England, there is interest, but the English market is just beginning. A transfer of 20 and 25 million euros is not resolved in two weeks, of course.”

Paris Saint-Germain, who are expected to appoint Unai Emery next week to replace Laurent Blanc, are understood to be one of those clubs, while Chelsea’s new manager, Antonio Conte, is currently coaching Italy at Euro 2016. Arsenal also have a long-standing interest having scouted Boufal extensively since January.

A product of the youth system at Angers, Boufal is comfortable out wide or as a No10. He is currently recuperating after injuring his knee at the start of May, but that is not expected to obstruct any move. Born in Paris, he opted to represent Morocco – for whom he qualifies through his parents – earlier this year and made his debut against Cape Verde in March.