Tana was my best signing: Boudjellal
Controversial Toulon rugby club owner Mourad Boudjellal has named his favourite signing as he gets set to step away from the powerful French club.
Boudjellal has lured some of the biggest names in the game to Toulon, including a stack of All Blacks, taking the club from the second division to being French and European champions.
He has sold his interests in the club to Bernard Lemaitre and, in a reflective mood, told newspaper Midi Olympique about who was his biggest signing of all.
‘‘Everyone will say Jonny Wilkinson but I’m with Tana Umaga,’’ Boudjellal said.
‘‘At that time, I was a young president who knew nothing about rugby. This does not mean that I understand this game better now, but I have become an old president.
‘‘I wanted to do something incredible, something unreal. The magic was that Umaga came as a freelance in Pro D2. And the transplant took – he stayed more than three years and remains an icon.
‘‘I am also proud to have listened to Umaga and followed my instinct. He told me, ‘There is a player at XIIIs [rugby league] who has all the qualities to become a world star at XVs’. I did not know him and I signed him. The guy was Sonny Bill Williams.
‘‘It was still listening to my intuition that I hired Wilkinson, Juan Smith, Bryan Habana or Frederic Michalak . . . I loved following this kind of file.’’
Never shy of spending big money with a chequebook that has changed the tone of the French scene, Toulon’s other All Blacks signings under Boudjellal have included Ali Williams, Carl Hayman, Jerry Collins, Anton Oliver, Andrew Mehrtens, Ma’a Nonu, Julian Savea, Rudi Wulf, Liam Messam, Malakai Fekitoa, Chris Masoe, Alby Mathewson, Nehe Milner Skudder and Saimone Taumoepeau.
Some of Boudjellal’s other big signings include Australians Matt Giteau, George Gregan and George Smith; Springboks Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield and Duane Vermeulen; and Welsh stars Leigh Halfpenny and Gethin Jenkins.
He has never been afraid of speaking his mind and that includes coming down hard on his players. Nonu and particularly Savea have felt his wrath with some of their form struggles.
He rates his best moments as pushing past the French championship to win three consecutive European titles from 2013-15 with his galaxy of stars.
Boudjellal says he is considering running for president of the French professional league but wonders how his reputation as being ‘‘a very divisive character’’ will be received.