Al Ain set to sign Gyan

Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan is set to move permanently to new Pro League champions Al Ain.

The Premier League club are expected to sell the Ghanaian forward for 3.5 million pounds.

Carlo Nohra, the chief executive at Al Ain, said the Gyan deal ‘is a loan agreement with an option to buy’.

“We have indicated to Sunderland, some time ago, that we want to keep him and he wants to stay, and now it’s a formality,” Nohra told The National newspaper.

“Whether it will happen, theoretically we have an agreement. It should happen. But this is football and there are always loopholes.

“Until I see his signature on a line, and have an international transfer in my hands, I’m not going to say he’s our player.

“When trying to reclaim someone like Gyan, subliminally, we have ‘Champions League’ flashing in our minds,” Nohra said, “and by winning the league we qualify for Asia, and it’s more than important to keep a player like him.

“And as a club who have won the Champions League once, in 2003, we would like to do it again; it’s important that we carry on that very important pedigree.”

Gyan, 26, has made clear he would like to remain with the new champions.

“I am honestly and definitely happy where I am playing now,” he said.

Gyan’s league-leading 17 goals in 15 games are evidence aplenty that he is a productive player now have a more difficult decision to make on his strike partner, Yasser Al Qahtani.

The Saudi Arabia international is on loan from Al Hilal, the big Riyadh club, and any deal with Al Qahtani represents a more subtle decision-making process.

Al Qahtani, 29, has a more modest six goals in 13 league games, but he was injured early in the season, and two of his league goals came in Al Ain’s clinching victory, the 2-0 triumph over Al Jazira on Friday.

“Those two goals, it adds to his stardom,” Nohra said.

“But how we proceed with him is a matter for the technical committee, and they have not yet communicated their recommendations.”

Al Qahtani for several years was the captain of the Saudi national team, and he scored 59 goals for his country, including one in the 2006 World Cup, before announcing last month his retirement from international football.