Stoke City on verge of signing Ibrahim Afellay

Holland and former Barcelona winger Ibrahim Afellay is closing in on a move to Stoke City.

Afellay, a free agent after leaving Barcelona when his contract expired this summer, was undergoing a medical at the Britannia Stadium on Monday.

The 29-year-old joined Barcelona from PSV in 2011 but failed to make much of an impact at the La Liga club.

Afellay’s old side, PSV, have been trying to persuade him to move back to Netherlands, while Sporting have also held talks with the Netherlands global.

Afellay, who has 50 caps for his country, prefers to operate in the No. 10 position but is equally comfortable on either flank.

However, injuries put pay to him furthering his career at Barcelona and he was shifted out on loan to Schalke for the 2012-13 campaign.

Having missed out on Internazionale’s Xherdan Shaqiri, having a bid reportedly accepted but then the player choosing to wait for a better offer from elsewhere, Stoke are still looking for a creative attacker, despite securing the services of Chelsea’s Marco van Ginkel for the upcoming season.

He will join Bojan Krkic, Marc Muniesa and fellow summer signing Moha El Ouriachi as the ex-Barcelona players in the Potters squad and will become manager Mark Hughes’ eighth signing of the summer.