James Rodriguez's transfer to Real Madrid is imminent. With the signing of Toni Kroos sealed and a deal for Keylor Navas on the way, Los Blancos have stepped up negotiations with AS Monaco.

On Wednesday, they moved significantly closer to reaching an agreement to see the Colombian move to the Santiago Bernabéu on a five-year contract. Madrid will confirm the deal in the coming days.

On Tuesday, AS revealed that James has already come to an agreement with Real, and has even finalised personal terms: he will earn 7.5 million euros net per season.

The top scorer at this summer's World Cup has always maintained that his dream is to be successful at the capital club, for which reason financial concerns have taken a back seat in his decision (tax issues mean his salary at Monaco is similar).

What's more, his keen desire to play for Madrid left Dmitry Rybolovlev, Monaco's billionaire Russian owner, aware that he had no choice but to give way and enable negotiations with the Champions League winners.

On Wednesday evening, talks between the two clubs intensified, with the Principality outfit softening the hard-line position that it had initially adopted. Some weeks ago, Monaco had begun by asking for 80 million euros for a player they considered as the jewel in their crown (he was signed from Porto for 45 million last summer), but late on Wednesday the deal had been virtually sealed for 70 million euros plus a player.

Monaco asked for Pepe, but were met with a firm ‘no’. They also enquired about Fabio Coentrao, but a part-exchange involving the left-back did not work out. All the indications are that they will accept the inclusion of Casemiro in the transfer, although other names are also on the table...