News: England's Wilkinson tipped to join ambitious French club Racing Metro '92

The Paris club, which has already confirmed its interest in signing French icon Sebastien Chabal from Sale, sees Wilkinson as the ideal player to oversee their anticipated return to Top 14, according to a report in the Belfast Telegraph.

It claimed the cash-rich club, which is currently seven points clear of Pro D2 with a game in hand, is ready to offer Wilkinson, 29, a two-year deal worth a staggering €1m per season.

The international record-points scorer has long been tipped to journey across the Channel with Toulon, Perpignan and Bayonne also believed to be interested, and if the figures are correct it would certainly make for a massive pay day for the injury-prone fly-half.

Racing don’t lack for ambition, or financial backing, with former Italian coach Pierre Berbizier currently masterminding their attempt to return to France’s premier rugby league.

Club owner Jacky Lorenzetti – who owns France’s biggest estate agency group Foncia – has plans for the Paris club to move to a new stadium and clearly wants to emulate the financial success of neighbours Stade Francais.

Metro won the French championship as recently as 1991, but subsequently fell on hard times before Lorenzetti took the helm.

Wilkinson, who has been taking French lessons, might see now as an ideal time to leave his beloved Newcastle Falcons as he seeks one last hurrah before retiring. The Guinness Premiership strugglers – beaten in the European Challenge Cup by Brive at the weekend – have been on the slide since releasing English duo Matthew Tait and Toby Flood at the end of last season.

Former All Black Carl Hayman is also tipped to return to New Zealand at the end of this season and the club has further sold its ground to the University of Northumbria in what many see as a sign of waning interest.

Wilkinson has also lost his England place to young starlet Danny Cipriani.

The Belfast Telegraph claimed Wilkinson was likely to commence contract talks with Racing “sometime over the next few days or week”, adding that “he may even have had preliminary discussions with the club in Paris sometime in the past week or ten days”.

Earlier in the season Wilkinson was tipped to join Toulon, another big-spending club, but it appears the Top 14 strugglers have adjusted their sights now with Northampton Saints’ former All Black Carlos Spencer rumoured to be their latest target.

Club president Mourad Boudjellal has been silent on the possible interest so far but has called a press conference for January 26^th, with the session being open for supporters to attend.