Rivaldo is expected to complete his move to Bolton later today after his agent confirmed that the Brazilian World Cup winner was keen on a move to England.

The Brazilian held constructive talks with Bolton manager Sam Allardyce and chairman Phil Gartside and views a switch to the Premiership as a way of reigniting his flagging career.

His English representative Peter Harrison revealed that Rivaldo is “very close” to joining Bolton.

“With a transfer of this size you can never be 100% sure,’ Harrison added.

“I know for sure that Sam made a good impression on him and so did Phil Gartside. Everything is looking good.

“There’s nothing untoward about the delay, Rivaldo just wanted time to think about it.”

Meanwhile, Allardyce told his club’s website: “We’ve been successful in the past with talks with Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha and Ivan Campo and we can be successful again.

“It would show there is no-holds-barred in our ambition to make the team better.

“It would show we have no problem dealing with the top end players, world-class players.

“Ultimately there is a point where if you want to get into the top half, you may have to go a bit beyond what you really want to do financially,”