Manchester United appears to be closing in on a deal to sign Owen Hargreaves after Bayern Munich admitted the English midfielder was leaving them.

Hargreaves looks set to complete the move to the Premiership champions, with the German media reporting he will sign a four-year contract.

Bayern has had a disappointing season, not only failing to defend its Bundesliga title but also missing out on qualification for next season's Champions League. The club's intentions to make sweeping squad changes during the summer had already been expressed.

But senior director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge made it clear that 26-year-old Hargreaves had been one of the players the Bavarian giants had hoped to keep on board.

"A player like Owen Hargreaves would have looked good in our team next year," Rumenigge told www-fcbayern.de "In the defensive midfield position, Owen is one of the best in the world - it's a big sporting loss for us."

Born in Calgary, Hargreaves has been tracked by United ever since impressing for England at last year's World Cup.

Bayern kept a tight hold on its asset until Sunday when club president Franz Beckenbauer confirmed the player was leaving.

"Owen Hargreaves will go," Beckenbauer told the DFB-Doppelpass programme on German TV. "It's also the wish of the player. "Everything is right and it is also financially right."

The midfielder represented hometown club Calgary Foothills FC from 1994-97 and had been contracted to Bayern until 2010. His breakthrough year was 2001 when he starred on the Bayern team that won the Champions League, the Intercontinental Cup and the Bundesliga.