The best paid rugby players in the world as new Owen Farrell fortune emerges
FORMER England captain Owen Farrell is preparing for his final few weeks as a Saracens player before he starts his new life in France next season.
The talismanic fly-half, who stepped away from Test rugby following last year’s World Cup, has been at Saracens since he was a teenager but will soon wave goodbye as he gets ready to join French giants Racing 92.
The move will not only see him leave English rugby for the first time, but also earn an eye-watering salary with his new club famously paying their star players handsomely.
But where does he rank among the game’s best-paid players? As you’d expect, such details are closely guarded but here are the reported salaries of rugby’s highest earners.
■■ Handre Pollard (South Africa) – £610,000
The Springbok fly-half reportedly took home more than a million pounds a year during his time at Montpellier, making him one of rugby’s biggest ever earners. However, the 29-year-old took a pay cut when he moved to Leicester Tigers ahead of the 2022/23 season and now earns a reported £610,000 per year.
■■ Steven Luatua (Samoa) – £620,000
The former All Black, who represented Samoa at last year’s World Cup gave up his international career to join Bristol Bears in 2017, signing a contract worth a reported £620,000 a year.
Antoine Dupont (France) £700,000The talismanic scrumhalf, who will compete at the Paris Olympics with the French Sevens team, has a reported salary of £700,000 with Toulouse. However, this figure may change with reports suggesting he will consider a brief sabbatical in Japan after switching back to the 15-a-side game.
■■ Dan Biggar (Wales) – £800,000 The only Welshman on the list, Biggar used to earn around £600,000 during his time at Northampton Saints, but saw his salaray increase by a third when he moved to French giants Toulon, where he is reportedly earning around £800,000.
■■ Siya Kolisi (South Africa) – £800,000
The two-time
World Cup-winning Springbok captain reportedly commands a salary of around £800,000 at Racing 92, but it is yet to be seen if Owen Farrell’s arrival at the club next season will affect its highest earners.
■■ Maro Itoje (England) – £800,000
Itoje agreed a hybrid deal with
Saracens and England earlier this year, on the understanding that his salary would be topped up by the RFU.
Last year, the union announced plans to introduce approximately 25 hybrid deals of around £150,000 each, with clubs paying the rest of the wages. However, no finalised contract has been signed.
The towering lock currently earns a reported £800,000 with Sarries but this could change when the above contract is signed, which should be in the autumn if all goes to plan.
■■ Faf De Klerk (South Africa) – £900,000
The South African scrum-half is one of the game’s highest earners, reportedly taking home £900,000 a year with Japanese side Yokohama Canon Eagles, who he joined from Sale Sharks in 2022.
■■ Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa) – £937,000
The Springbok star reportedly began earning around one million euros a year when he moved to Toulon, with the club also paying a massive £2.23million transfer fee to rivals Toulouse for his services. He was released by Toulon at the end of last season, and was immediately inundated with big-money offers, reportedly turning down a deal from the Sharks worth £2.7million.
In the end, he signed for Japanese outfit Suntory Sungoliath and will earn a staggering reported salary of around £900,000 when he joins up with them after the World Cup.
■■ Finn Russell (Scotland) – £1 million
Scotland’s talismanic fly-half had been taking home £850,000 a year at Racing 92, but the deal he signed with Bath last year is understood to be even more lucrative. Having moved to the Rec after the World Cup, Russell reportedly earns between £950,000 and £1million a year with the Premiership club,.
■■ Owen Farrell (England) –
£1.2 million
Last year it looked likely that Farrell would drop off the list of the game’s highest earners completely, as with his Saracens contract running out, he was reportedly set to accept a major paycut from his £800,000 salary to remain at the club.
However, having stepped away from Test rugby for the foreseeable future, Farrell announced in January that he was leaving Sarries after 15 years to join Racing 92.
Details of what he will earn are sparse but he will certainly take home in excess of his current salary, with reports in France suggesting he could end up banking as much as £1.2 million a year.
Such a figure would make him the highest-paid player in the world.