Sonny Bill Williams has received an offer to be the highest paid player in the history of rugby league and union, just days after his All Blacks were eliminated from the Rugby World Cup.

According to a report, Williams has ben tabled a record $9 million deal to return to rugby league with the Toronto Wolfpack in the English Super League.

Fairfax Media reports the deal is worth a staggering $4.5 million per season for two years.

It comes after Toronto’s head coach Brian McDermott revealed earlier this month that his team had received word that Williams was interested in joining the team.

The Toronto team is on the lookout for big-name signings following their promotion from the second-tier Championship and are keen on signing the All Blacks star.

The record deal would see Williams earn around four times the wages paid to NRL superstar Daly Cherry-Evans ($10 million over eight seasons) and AFL superstar Lance Franklin ($10 million over nine seasons).

Williams’ future remains clouded following the All Blacks’ shock semi-final defeat at the hands of England, but his contract with New Zealand Rugby expires after the All Blacks’ third-place play-off against Wales on Friday night.

The Sydney Roosters have reportedly ruled themselves out of the race for Williams’ signature after conceding they could not compete with the record offer from Toronto.

Williams has also reportedly fielded several other multi million-dollar offers from overseas rugby franchises.

Toronto has a competitive advantage of being able to sign Williams as a Super League marquee player where just $300,000 of his salary will be included in the team’s salary cap.

McDermott said recently his team wanted to bring in a David Beckham-type player to do for the Wolfpack what the former Manchester United favourite did for LA Galaxy — and that Williams fits the bill.

“Sonny Bill Williams has shown interest in us and that’s what it is at the moment,” McDermott said.

“He’s currently busy with the World Cup so I wouldn’t ever dare to suggest that he is more than interested in coming but the answer wasn’t a ‘no’ once we made contact so that’s something we’d like to follow up.”

The two-time World Cup winner fronted an All Blacks press conference yesterday in Japan and when asked to reveal his sporting future Williams said: “Soon bro, soon, we’re just trying to finalise that.”

The Canadian franchise is funded by Australian mining billionaire David Argyle and will make its debut in the Super League next year after winning promotion by beating Featherstone Rovers.

Meanwhile, a push for a new rugby league team based out of New York is expected to come too late for Williams, but is arriving just in time for the new franchise to snap up some of the NRL’s biggest stars, The Daily Telegraph reported last week.



A New York consortium has already identified veteran NRL stars, including Benji Marshall (34 years old), Kieran Foran (29), Brett Morris (33), Josh Morris (33), Darius Boyd (32), Sia Soliola (33), Aiden Tolman (30), Matt Prior (32), Jesse Bromwich (30), James Tamou (30) and James Graham (34), as potential marquee signings for when the team enters the third tier of the English Super League in 2021.

The New York club reportedly wants to win back-to-back promotion to play in the Super League by 2023.