Sunderland owner Stewart Donald has agreed a deal to sell the club to a consortium that is led by minority shareholder Juan Sartori and 22-year-old Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
Donald will still retain a 15 per cent stake in the League One club, according to The Guardian.
Donald has been looking to sell the club all year. Sartori, meanwhile, currently holds a 20 per cent stake at the Stadium of Light.
But it is the presence Louis-Dreyfus, the son of the former Marseille owner Robert, that is fascinating. His late father also had a stake in Belgium side Standard Liege, where the club's academy is named after him.
His mother, Margarita, is one of the richest women in the world with an estimated wealth of £5.7billion.
She met Kyril's father in 1988 and they were married until his death in 2009. He passed away at the age of 63 from leukemia.
Margarita sold the majority of her late husband's shares in Marseille in 2016.
The Guardian adds that the deal could be concluded in as little as a fortnight. Indeed earlier this week, Sunderland cancelled a meeting with supporters citing the 'advancement and sensitivity' of takeover talks.
'After discussions with the relevant fan groups, we have taken the decision to postpone tomorrow's supporter collective meeting,' chief executive Jim Rodwell said, according to The Sunderland Echo.
'The club remains in a period of exclusivity with a preferred buyer and due to the advancement and sensitivity of this process, it would be inappropriate to comment publicly at this time.'
Sunderland are currently sixth in League One, the third tier of English football and Sartori and Louis-Dreyfus will be expected to oversee their revival as owners.
The club are very much considered a sleeping giant - they were last in the Premier League in 2017 and the Stadium of Light has a capacity of 49,000.
They are next in action on Saturday afternoon, at home against MK Dons.