Watford have joined the race and look to swoop in under Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur’s noses for highly-rated Lille starlet Sofiane Boufal.
The Hornets are currently on a week-long pre-season tour in Austria, and that is where representatives of the £18 million player have held talks with the club.
Lille are believed to be worried about the prospect of losing one of their top players, with Juventus and Lyon also interested in the Moroccan international.
Forward not worried about injury
Boufal found the net 11 times last season and set up five goals before his season was hampered with injury, forcing him out of the remaining games in May.
He went on to have knee surgery, and in a recent interview, he stated that the injury will not hamper his plans during pre-season.
"I don't think this injury will have any influence on my future," Boufal said. "It's an injury that unfortunately strikes a lot of players and it's not an injury that can complicate my career in the short or medium term."
He went on to talk about his return date, September, but also said that he could quite possibly miss three weeks of competition depending on the “league I’m playing in”.
Hornets busy so far this summer
Boufal came through the youth ranks at Angers, and he made his break into the first-team in 2012 before going on to make 46 appearances in his three years in Ligue 1.
The move to Lille came in 2015 and the player has scoring 14 goals in 43 appearances playing in the attacking midfield role for The Great Danes.
Walter Mazzarri has already been busy so far this transfer window, bringing in four players to Vicarage Road; Jerome Sinclair, Christian Kabasele, Isaac Success and Juan Camilo Zuniga on loan.
And the Hornets have played three games so far this summer, and they are unbeaten as they drew 1-1 with Woking, won 2-0 against Stevenage and they beat Union Berlin 3-1 last night in Austria.