Milan vice president Adriano Galliani and Barcelona president Sandro Rosell were meeting on Saturday to finalize a transfer that would bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic back to Serie A from Spain, Italian media reported.
Ibrahimovic will reportedly join Milan on loan this season, after which the Italian club would be obliged to pay Barcelona euro30 million ($38 million) for his full transfer.
Ibrahimovic played for Juventus and Inter Milan before joining the Spanish champions last season in a euro46 million ($66 million) deal that sent striker Samuel Eto'o to Inter. He scored 21 goals in all competitions but often struggled to fit into Barcelona's intricate passing schemes.
Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola left Ibrahimovic out of the squad for Sunday's match at Racing Santander for "technical reasons."
Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has already phoned the Sweden forward.
"It was just a courtesy call to say hello and get to know each other," Allegri told Italy's Sky TV on Friday. "He told me he would be very happy to come to Milan."
Milan already has three high-profile forwards in Alexandre Pato, Ronaldinho and Marco Borriello - not to mention reserves like 37-year-old Filippo Inzaghi and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - but Allegri wasn't worried about having too many options to choose from.
"Ibrahimovic is a champion and the more champions we have the easier it is to win matches," the coach said. "We have one of the best attacks in Europe."
The 28-year-old Ibrahimovic began his career in his native Sweden with his hometown club Malmo before shooting to European fame with Ajax. He joined Juventus in 2004 and won two Serie A titles with the Turin side, although both were revoked due to the Italian match-fixing scandal.
With Juventus relegated to Serie B for a season, Ibrahimovic moved to Inter in 2006 and guided his new team to three more Serie A titles before heading off to Spain.
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