>> Blindside: Maro can be first £1m Prem player
MARO ITOJE will become the Premiership’s first million pound a season player after returning from the Lions tour with an enhanced reputation. Itoje, who is still only 22, is under contract with Saracens until 2019 after signing a new long term deal at the end of last season. He has played a key role in helping Saracens and England win back-to-back European Champions Cup and Six Nations titles respectively. Blindside understands that one Premiership club has already failed with an offer of £850,000 a season to lure him away from Saracens. But that is someway short of what Saracens will have to splash out to keep Itoje when his contract next comes up for negotiation. The Lions second row is represented by the Stellar Group who also guide the career of Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale. They will ask for a seven figure wage.
Itoje will become only the third player in rugby history after Racing’s Dan Carter and Japan full-back Ayumu Goromaru to earn £1 million a season.
Carter was the first when he signed a £1.4 million a year deal with Racing while Toulon paid Goromaru a similar sum during his one season in France.
Japan’s World Cup star has since returned to Yamaha Jubilo after an unhappy stay on the Côte d’Azur.
The highest earner in Premiership history was Kurtley Beale who was paid £750,000 a season by Wasps, a deal also brokered by Stellar.
An industry insider said: “Maro’s stock only continues to rise, he was outstanding in all three Tests in New Zealand and Saracens are going to have to pay alot of money to keep him.
“He will become the Premiership’s first million pound a year player and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him earning between £1.2 million and £1.3 million a year.
“That could go even higher if he was to move to France where clubs would be falling over themselves to sign him.
“The RFU would then have a dilemma and could have to evoke their exceptional circumstances rule on players playing abroad.”