Jota is reported to have signed off on an agreement to take him to Saudi Arabia - meaning the ball is now in Celtic's court to finalise a fee with Al-Ittihad.
The bombshell news broke earlier this week that the Saudi champions, who have already landed Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante, had made their move for Jota. Record Sport understands Celtic were reluctant to sell but with a fee between £20-25m on the table, there's a strong feeling it is an offer too good to refuse.
The same goes for the player who is believed to be set to take home an eyewatering £192,000 a week tax free if he makes the switch to the Middle East. Even if he were to swap Celtic for the Premier League instead, he wouldn't be earning half that much in his first contract. And it all seems as if it is now a matter of if rather than when.
Various outlets through the night have confirmed a deal is close with Saudi outlet IttiMania - one of the most popular Ittihad news sources in the Arabic language with almost 500,000 Twitter followers - claiming he has signed his contract already. That's corroborated by transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano who notes that the club have a "full agreement on personal terms" with Jota.
Celtic paid £6.5m to sign Jota permanently a year ago and 30 per cent of the profit on that deal will be due to Benfica. But even still that will see the Parkhead club bank more than £15m in take-home for the Portuguese superstar.
