Alexander Tounchev, captain of Bulgarian reigning football champions CSKA Sofia, has left the club's training camp and has flown to England to negotiate his transfer to Leicester City, CSKA said in a statement.

The news was picked up swiftly by British media, who have labelled Tounchev a “Bulgarian Ace”. As CSKA's captain and a regular fixture in the Bulgarian national team Tounchev will try to opt for a profitable deal.

So far, CSKA has not revealed any details about Tounchev's possible transfer. According to local news portal thisisleicestershire.co.uk, the 26-year-old central defender will discuss an £800 000 move on July 3.

Tounchev's departure from CSKA does not come as a surprise for anyone familiar with the latest developments around CSKA. The club has been in a deep financial crisis since the start of June, when Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) denied it a license to play in the country's top division, Group A, next season.

BFU said that the club has missed all deadlines for submitting the required paperwork and had several millions of debts to the state. The crisis cost CSKA its place in next year's Uefa's Championship League tournament, as well.

Despite the good news that the team would actually remain in Bulgaria's Group A next season, CSKA was forced to sell its stars and try to cover its debts. With the place in Uefa's tournament irreversibly lost, a number of fans' favourites have left the club already, half of them being the foreign players at the club.

Tounchev is just the latest of many losses for CSKA, but could prove one of the most costly, since his departure would remove the bedrock of the Bulgarian champions' defence.