Who is Mariano Diaz? The €23m striker Real Madrid have stolen away from Sevilla

The European champions are set to re-sign the striker from Lyon, much to the fury of Sevilla, who had already agreed terms with the 25-year-old.

Mariano is under contract at Lyon until June 2022 but Goal understands that his move back to Madrid should be confirmed on Wednesday, just over a year after moving to France for a measly €8m .

Sevilla had been the frontrunners to sign the Spain-born forward who has been capped by the Dominican Republic, having agreed a €35 million deal with Lyon.

However, as part of the transfer that original transfer, Real Madrid retained not only 35 per cent of Mariano's playing rights, they also included a buy-back option giving them the right to re-sign the player if they matched any future bid for his services.

As a result, the European champions will only have to pay €23m (£20m/$26m) to bolster a forward line still reeling from the shock loss of all-time record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus with an attacker who struck 21 times in all competitions last term.

Unsurprisingly, though, Sevilla are unimpressed, with club president Jose Castro claiming on Monday  that Mariano had given him his word that he was going to sign for the Rojiblancos.

"Real Madrid have a buy option they are going to exercise," he lamented. "But we still have no communication from the player, who has told us that he wanted to play with Sevilla again and again. He has the ability to say one thing or another.

"We negotiated with Lyon and then they have 48 hours to decide. Real Madrid did it. Are we annoyed with Real Madrid? Not at all, this is football. We have to keep working.

"We have done what we had to do, in good faith, with an agent and a player who tells us on videos and audios that he only wants to play in Sevilla."