Liverpool have agreed to sell striker Luis Suarez to Barcelona for a fee thought to be about £75m.

The Uruguayan, 27, who is serving a four-months ban for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup, will sign a five-year deal.

Suarez, who scored 31 league goals last season, will travel to the Spanish club next week for a medical.

“Luis is a very special talent and I thank him for the role he has played,” said Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.

Suarez – last season’s Premier League top scorer and winner of the PFA and Football Writers’ Player of the Year awards – signed for Liverpool from Ajax in 2011 for £22.7m, and had four years left on his contract.

The move to Barcelona takes him closer to his wife Sofia’s family.

“I hope you can all understand why I have made this decision,” said the striker, who is banned from “all football-related activity” until the end of October as he serves his third suspension for biting an opponent.

“This club did all they could to get me to stay, but playing and living in Spain, where my wife’s family live, is a lifelong dream and ambition. I believe now the timing is right.”