Sonny Bill Williams will not return to Sydney Roosters next season and is deciding between the Blues and Chiefs before finalising a three-year deal with the New Zealand Rugby Union that will enable him to box and play sevens in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup.
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Williams, who has been intensely pursued by the Roosters as well as French and English rugby union clubs, is understood to have informed the NRL club's chairman Nick Politis that he had decided to continue in the 15-man code.
Toulon, where the 30-year-old dual international began his rugby union career in 2008, Montpellier and Racing 92 were among the French clubs linked to Williams but he does not want to move to Europe and has rejected the lucrative offers.
With an 18-month old daughter, Imaan, Williams and his wife, Alana, are believed to be keen to live closer to his family in Auckland but he has a strong association with the Chiefs after playing there the seasons before and after his two-year stint with the Roosters and leading the Hamilton-based franchise to the 2012 Super Rugby title.
Blues coach Tana Umaga, who lured the sporting all-rounder from the Bulldogs to Toulon in 2008, is in Sydney with the NSW Origin team and has held discussions with Williams' manager Khoder Nasser but further talks will take place with the Chiefs before a decision on where the New Zealander plays next season is announced on Wednesday.
Williams, who is also in Sydney, hopes to win a gold medal with the New Zealand Sevens team at the Olympic Games in Rio and will join the All Blacks squad later this year as a member of the senior playing group in a sign of how highly regarded he is by coach Steve Hansen.
The new three-year deal will provide Williams the opportunity to win a record three Rugby World Cups after being a member of the victorious All Blacks teams in 2011 and 2015, while the British and Irish Lions are due to tour New Zealand next year.
The NZRU will again allow him to box as they did when he first moved to New Zealand from Toulon in 2010 with the aim of making the All Blacks squad for the following year's World Cup, while he will also have the option of continuing his sevens career in select tournaments.
The Roosters could never match the money on offer to Williams in Europe but hoped the opportunity of a job after football and the lifestyle in Sydney, where he first moved as a 15-year-old after signing with Canterbury and where most of his family now reside, would convince him to finish his career here.
Williams, whose grandfather Bill Woolsey was a legend in Auckland league circles, grew up around the game and still considers himself a league player but the NZRU has been proactive in convincing him to stay in rugby whereas the NRL have not been involved in negotiations with the Roosters or any other club.
Despite his age, there is a possibility Williams could continue playing beyond the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan as he is renowned for his healthy lifestyle and looking after his body.
However, if he never plays league again Williams will be remembered as one of the most brilliant, skilful and dominant players to have played in the NRL, who was renowned for his ability to offload and the timing of his shoulder charges before the tackle was outlawed in 2013.
He has won premierships with the Bulldogs in 2004 and Roosters in 2013, and after being voted the most hated man in Australia after walking out on Canterbury in 2008 also won over the support of most NRL fans for the humility and professionalism he displayed during his two seasons at the Bondi club.
