Crystal Palace look poised to outgun Chelsea and sign highly-rated Brazilian attacker Matheus Franca.
Newcastle United were also keen on the Flamengo star, but respected Italian football reporter Fabrizio Romano claims the Eagles have won the race to land the 19-year-old.
He tweeted: “Crystal Palace are set to sign Brazilian talent Matheus Franca!
“Documents are being exchanged between clubs – here we go.
“Understand Flamengo will receive 20m (Euros) fixed fee plus 10m (Euros) in add-ons.
“Medical booked for next week, as per @cahemota (Brazilian sports journalist). Done deal.”
Chelsea were also keen but were likely to ship the teenager out on loan initially whereas Palace are far more likely to offer regular first team action now Zaha has moved on.
Franca is seen as the ideal replacement for departing winger Wilfried Zaha, who last week joined Turkish side Galatasaray.
Crystal Palace completed their pre-season American tour this weekend with a 1-1 draw against La Liga outfit Sevilla in Detroit.
The Eagles were trailing before Ebere Eze struck with what initially looked like an unlikely opportunity on 75 minutes.
Asked by Palace’s TV channel how he managed to score, Ebe said: “I don’t know. I just saw the space and the opportunity to get in behind them and thank God it went in.
“It was sick – sick energy.
“Obviously I’m disappointed we didn’t win in the end, but we worked hard and showed what we were about today, which was a positive.”
Ebe added: “I honestly feel that shows the quality we’ve got in the team.
“If we keep working and keep pushing, we’ll see where we can go.”
Ebe’s goal and all-round performance also drew praise from manager Roy Hodgson.
The Eagles chief said: “I thought he interpreted the position that we asked him to play very well.
“He was a constant thorn and their only means of preventing him from running riot was to foul him.
“I thought there were some bad fouls committed against him.
“But even more credit to him for having the courage, despite being fouled in that way so often, to take the ball through defenders and score the goal he scored.”
Hodgson added: “He was a major plus today.
“But it was one of those games really where we played so well, especially in the second half when we found a bit more aggression and a bit more pace to our game.
“The first half was not bad either, but the second one I thought we really found an extra gear – and it’s really good in the sense I don’t think I could fault anyone’s performance really.
“They went from ‘very good’ to ‘good’ to ‘more than decent’ right the way through the team.”
Crystal Palace are now heading home ahead of their final pre-season game at home to Lyon on Saturday (ko 5.30pm).
