Monaco's Lemar agrees to join Atletico Madrid

Bengaluru, June 13: Premier League target Thomas Lemar has quit former Ligue 1 champions AS Monaco and agreed to join La Liga giants Atletico Madrid, the two clubs revealed.

"Atletico de Madrid and AS Monaco have achieved a preliminary agreement over the transfer of Thomas Lemar to our club," for the definitive transfer," the Spanish club said of the 22-year old.

📝 Preliminary agreement with @AS_Monaco_EN over the transfer of Thomas Lemar
👉 https://t.co/WwsvqzPsfq #AúpaAtleti pic.twitter.com/NnUwAPLCCC

— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) June 12, 2018

"Over the next days, both clubs will work to close the agreement," the Madrid club said of the attacking midfielder usually deployed on the left.

The slightly built French World Cup star looked set to join Arsenal a year ago but Monaco pulled out of the potential £92-million (100 million euros) deal after selling a string of other stars.

Lemar was also tipped to join Liverpool as they seek to replace Philippe Coutinho.

"In the last season, Lemar has continued to show his quality," Atletico said on their website. In fact he played 38 games for Monaco, showing his best form at the latter end of the season.

Didier Deshamps left many top stars out of his World Cup squad but kept faith with Lemar, who scored recently for France in a win over Colombia and bagged a brace last year against the Dutch.

Having made a run to the Champions League semis and won the French title in 2017, Monaco sold Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva to Manchester City, Tiemoue Bakayoko to Chelsea, and let teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe leave for Paris Saint Germain.

Monaco's Brazilian midfielder Fabinho will join Liverpool following the World Cup finals in Russia as Monaco cash in again.

(With inputs from Agencies).