Ruben Neves will move to Al Hilal as the agreement almost closed with Wolves for €55M

Ruben Neves will move to Al Hilal. The agreement almost closed with Wolves for €55M.

Barcelona had held a long-term interest in the Portugal international but have not been able to get a deal over the line.

Wolves are now in talks with Al Hilal for Neves, who only had a year left on his contract, with a move – which will be a club-record sale – likely to be completed this week.

Karim Benzema completed a free transfer to Al Ittihad this month and Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante is linked with joining him, while Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Al Nassr in December.

A huge offer for Wolves would ease the financial pressures the club will be working under in the transfer window this summer.

Neves waved an emotional goodbye to fans at the end of last season though it is a surprise he is prepared to move to Saudi Arabia at the peak of his career – despite the huge salary on offer. 

Should the transfer be completed at the reported figure, it will surpass the £42m Liverpool paid for Diogo Jota in 2020 as the the highest transfer fee the club has ever received for a player.

Neves joined Wolves in 2017, and in his maiden season at Molineux was instrumental in helping the club top the Championship under Nuno Espirito Santo and gain promotion to the Premier League.

Since then the former Porto star has remained an integral part of the team, and was handed the armband by Bruno Lage at the start of the season, captaining the club to a 13th and finishing as his side’s joint-top scorer in the Premier League.

Should Neves make the switch to the Saudi Pro League he would be joining superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, and more recently, Karim Benzema in the country.

At Al-Hilal, he could count former Premier League stars Matheus Pereira and Andre Carrillo as teammates at the 68,000-seat King Fahd International Stadium.

They have been under pressure to sell to avoid breaching Premier League spending rules after splashing out £200m this term.

It led to doubts over Julen Lopetegui’s future but the former Real Madrid boss will stay at Molineux having received assurances.

Yet he will lose Neves, who has been central to Wolves’ success since joining from Porto in 2017.

He helped them win the Championship a year later and then to two consecutive seventh-placed finishes in the Premier League.

The club also reached the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020 – where they were knocked out by Lopetegui’s Sevilla – but have struggled to replicate that success and finished 13th last season having been bottom at Christmas.