Leeds have agreed to sell England centre-half Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United for a record £30 million, according to reports in England today.
The deal, subject to Ferdinand passing a medical and agreeing personal terms, will once again make the 23-year-old world football's costliest defender.
Juventus paid Italian rivals Parma 35.4m dollars (22.5m pounds) for France defender Lilian Thuram in 2001.
Ferdinand's move will also be a British record surpassing the 28.1m pounds United paid Italian Serie A side Lazio for Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron.
The fee is the biggest deal for a transfer involving two English clubs, overtaking the 18m pounds Leeds paid West Ham for Ferdinand - a then world record fee for a defender - when they signed him on a six-year contract in November 2000.
Earlier in the day Leeds scrapped the 12pm deadline they had set United to make an offer for the player.
Ferdinand, 23, was one of the stars of England's World Cup campaign, turning in a series of commanding displays before defeat in the quarter-finals to eventual champions Brazil.
The move will come as some relief to Leeds manager Terry Venables who insisted a decision on Ferdinand's future had to be made quickly.
"We can't keep going on like this," the former England coach said in an interview with the News of the World.
"It's interfering with the business of the club and our pre-season preparation. That comes into my area and I will not tolerate it.
"We had a bomb dropped in our laps by United and we must deal with it in the best way we can - be we never encouraged it.
"The fact Rio is still a Leeds player shows we don't want to sell him. But if United want one of the best players in the world, they must pay the best price in the world. That's the way it is.
"They seem to think they are entitled to everything and, if they do get Rio, it will make me more and more determined to stop them lifting the title."
Yesterday, at his own request, Ferdinand was omitted from the Leeds party which set off on a 10-day pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia from Leeds/Bradford Airport, prompting speculation that a deal was imminent.