Iborra agrees to join Leicester from Sevilla
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Sevilla are set to lose captain Vicente Iborra to Leicester City after the Spanish side announced on Tuesday they had agreed to sell the midfielder to the former Premier League champions for a reported 14 million euros ($15.8 million).
Iborra, 29, has spent the last four years with Sevilla since joining from Levante in 2013, scoring 30 goals in 172 games and winning three successive Europa League titles and qualifying the team for the Champions League in the last two campaigns.
The club said Iborra would travel to Leicester to undergo a medical before signing his contract and returning to publicly bid farewell to Sevilla, who were knocked out of the 2016-17 Champions League by the Foxes at the last 16 stage.
"Iborra has shown exemplary behaviour in his time at the club and has won the unanimous respect and love of all Sevilla fans," Sevilla said in a statement.
"His achievements with the club are colossal but he will also be remembered for his leadership on and off the pitch, and for the dignity with which he wore the captain's armband."
The imminent departure of Iborra marks the onset of a major overhaul of personnel at Sevilla, an event which occurs annually each summer, although the changes have not led to the team's decline on the pitch in recent seasons.
Sevilla finished fourth in La Liga last season, despite parting ways with a raft of players, including top scorer Kevin Gameiro and midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak.
Argentine playmaker Ever Banega has returned to the club a year after leaving for Inter Milan, while forward Vitolo is reported to be on the verge of a move to Atletico Madrid, spending the first six months on loan at Las Palmas.
(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by John O'Brien)