Basketball star Kobe Bryant is not involved in an imminent sale of Italian Serie B club Bologna, a source told ESPN.
A report in Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport suggested that a consortium led by investor Joe Tacopina included the Los Angeles Lakers guard, but a source close to Bryant told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that he was not part of the deal for the second-division club.
Tacopina told reporters outside a Bologna hotel on Wednesday night that he had reached an agreement with the current club owner Albano Guaraldi and the deal was about to go through.
"We will start with the due diligence tomorrow and count on this going through, even if we don't know the precise time frame," said Tacopina, according to the Corriere della Sera.
Tacopina reportedly wanted Bryant, 36, to contribute about 350,000 euros ($452,000) toward the purchase of the club.
Bryant spent eight years of his life in Italy while his father was playing for Pallacanestor Reggiana basketball club and speaks fluent Italian.
His fondness for soccer is well-known, as he recently took in Bayern Munich's Bundesliga clash with Stuttgart while in Munich for treatment on his knee, and also attended three World Cup matches in Brazil.
While recovering from another injury a year ago, he visited AC Milan's training ground and was interviewed wearing a Milan shirt, admitting he had always been a fan of the Rossoneri.
In December, United States national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann used Bryant as an example when criticising American sports teams' tendency to overpay for aging stars. Bryant, who had just signed a two-year contract extension for $48.5 million, said he thought Klinsmann's comments were "pretty funny."
Information from ESPNFC's Ben Gladwell and ESPN.com's Marc Stein was used in this report.