Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan will join Al Ain on permanent basis if the UAE-based club are ready to part with £10m.

Sunderland are seeking the amount to release the player to Al Ain after the Asian side expressed the confidence of keeping Gyan.

This will make this total transfer fee £16m with Sunderland making a profit of £3m as he joined the English side from Rennes for £13m.

The Ghana attacker seems likely to permanently leave Sunderland after Al Ain chief executive Carlo Nohra claimed he was “very confident” of signing the striker.

The deal is likely to be completed within four weeks with Gyan likely to get another bumper tax-free pay rise from Al Ain.

Gyan has helped the United Arab Emirates club to the Pro League title after joining them on loan from the Black Cats for a fee of £6million in September last year.

The Ghana striker has been a key part of that success after netting 22 goals in all competitions and is keen to remain in the Middle East.

Nohra claimed in March that the club had the first option to buy Gyan outright and despite outside interest, he believes a deal will be struck with Sunderland this summer.

“I’m very confident that he will be staying,” he said.

“He has indicated on a number of occasions that he would like to remain at the club.

“There is a loan agreement that we need to work out with Sunderland, but what is really important is that the player wants to be here and we would like to keep him. So now it’s about working out the logistics of a transfer.

“That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but the seeds are there for us to ensure that this becomes a long-term deal.”

The 26-year-old will have two years of the contract he signed when he joined the Black Cats from Rennes during the summer of 2010 remaining at the end the current season, and his future could have a major bearing on manager Martin O’Neill’s transfer plans.

Gyan arrived on Wearside on the back of a series of impressive displays for his country at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa as then manager Steve Bruce invested a club record £13.1million on him.**