Just six months after he swapped Liverpool for Lyon, Xherdan Shaqiri is on the verge of a move to MLS.
The Swiss playmaker has been granted permission by Lyon to open talks with "an MLS club".
The club in question is believed to be Chicago Fire.
Lyon paid Liverpool €11million for Shaqiri in August, ending a three-year stint on Merseyside.
The 30-year old hasn't been a peripheral figure at the Ligue 1 club, starting in half of his 18 appearances this season. Shaqiri even scored Lyon's equaliser at home to Marseille in midweek, before setting up Moussa Dembele for a late winner.
However, Lyon released a statement on Friday evening, saying, "The management of Olympique Lyonnais and Peter Bosz inform that they have granted Xherdan Shaqiri's request to be able to start discussions with an MLS club as part of a future transfer.
"As a result, the Swiss international midfielder did not take part in today's training session and will not be part of the group that will travel to Monaco tomorrow evening as part of the 23rd day of Ligue 1."
Shaqiri will be pretty familiar with one of his new bosses in the Windy City. Chicago sporting director Georg Heitz was at Basel when Shaqiri broke into the side.
Fire have room in their squad for two Designated Players [ie, players outside of their salary cap], with Paraguay international midfielder Gaston Gimenez their only current DP.
The club has previously been home to the likes of Bastien Schweinsteiger, Hristo Stoichkov, Cuauthemoc Blanco and another ex-Liverpool forward - Florent Sinama-Pongolle.
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