Cardiff City youngster Gabriele Biancheri is set to move to Manchester United after completing a medical with the Premier League giants over the weekend.
Top-flight outfits have been monitoring the 16-year-old forward, with Chelsea thought to have been keen on him last summer. However, Biancheri has stepped up to another level this season and became impossible to ignore.
The Wales youth international was rewarded in December with a call-up to Cardiff's under-21s by Darren Purse for the game against Wolves.
READ MORE: Who is Gabriele Biancheri, the 16-year-old Cardiff City starlet who just made the step up
It was just reward for the youngster, who stepped up from the under-18s following a hugely-impressive start to the campaign for him personally. He had notched 17 goals and five assists in all age-grade football this season leading up to that match, including a match-winning brace against Bristol City in the Severnside derby.
But the bright lights of Manchester and joining such a prestigious Category One academy appears to have been to much of a lure for him.
Personal terms have been agreed and both Cardiff and United have verbally agreed, too, so it is expected he will sign on the dotted line to become a scholar at Old Trafford before penning a long-term professional contract when he turns 17 in September.
With Brexit rules now seeing Category One academies look to prise top assets from other clubs in the UK, such as when Leeds United signed Charlie Crew from Cardiff in the summer, the Bluebirds are desperate to protect their best young players to either prop up the first team or earn them serious money further down the line.
But 16 is proving to be a real pinch point for Category Two academies, with bigger clubs hoping to get in before their prices skyrocket following a promotion to the under-21s or the first team.
David Hughes, Cardiff's former academy chief, is now in Manchester United's youth setup and will doubtless have provided his new employers with a glowing reference for the young Welsh striker.
While Biancheri has played for Wales at youth level, he is also eligible to represent England and Italy internationally.
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