Folau calls time on controversial career, leaves complicated legacy behind

Israel Folau has left a complicated legacy behind after calling time on his controversial, trailblazing, three-code career at the age of 37.

Folau told Code Sports on Thursday that he was retiring from professional sport after his attempt at a potential NRL return with Wests Tigers was blocked by the Australian Rugby League Commission.

In his pomp, the towering outside back was breathtaking to watch.

The prodigy from Minto debuted in the NRL as a 17-year-old, made his Kangaroos bow at 18 and entered the State of Origin cauldron at 19.

He thrived on all rugby league stages with ridiculous ease and his NSW Waratahs teammates called him ‘Winx’.

Folau had the long stride glide of a thoroughbred and his aerial ability – and marketing pull – attracted the attention of the AFL, despite him having no background in the game.

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He signed a four-year, $6 million contract with the GWS Giants to be part of their inaugural list, but pulled the pin after kicking two goals in 13 games over two years.

He clearly gave the transition to Aussie rules his best shot, but the move ultimately proved too tricky for even his array of skills.

Folau then became the first man to play league, AFL and rugby professionally when he inked a lucrative deal to become the new face of the Wallabies.

He became the leading try-scorer in Super Rugby history, scoring 60 in 96 games.

That record has since been broken – and so has Folau’s relationship with the code.

For all his try-scoring heroics, Folau will be most widely remembered for his sensational sacking by RA.

In 2019, months before the Rugby World Cup, Folau torched his legacy with a series of anti-gay social media posts.

Folau shared an Instagram post stating that “hell awaits” homosexuals, adulterers, thieves and atheists.

He has since played out his career in relative obscurity in Japan.

“Yeah, I’m done now. I’m not looking for any other opportunity in terms of playing at that level,” Folau said.

“I guess I’m still sort of processing it now. Still very fresh, I guess. It hasn’t really sunk in just yet. I look across my time playing the game, I was very blessed to play at the highest level for even that long.

“It’s not common for players to get to play at that level for that long. I’m very thankful and grateful for the career I’ve gotten to have.

“I think maybe in a year’s time it will sink in a bit more, and you sit back and reflect. At the moment I’m still going through that process.”

Folau has not backed down from his offensive comments.

“I tell you what I do stand for,” Folau said in 2021.

“As a Christian, I stand by the Bible and what the Bible says. Every written word that’s written in that book, I stand by that and that’s all I’ll say about that.”

Folau remains an influential figure within Australian sporting circles.

He is a mentor to current Wallabies star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.

Suaalii met Folau as a teenager when former coach Michael Cheika invited him into a Wallabies camp.

“I really looked up to him when I was younger,” Suaalii said in 2024.

“For a young kid, I feel like I really wanted to ask a lot of questions. I feel like it’s been one of my strengths, just learning, and I feel like Israel was someone I could look up to and ask questions to. Every now and then I do catch up with him, and he’s a great mentor in my life.”

Folau scored 37 tries in 73 Tests before being sacked and is arguably the country’s best league-to-union convert.

His sacking upset many of his Pasifika teammates.

“Those guys are still healing, including myself,” Wallabies great Sekope Kepu said in 2020.

“There was a time there when we sort of didn’t know what was going on. Things were being said in the media and a lot was going on at the time. Everyone is finding their feet and slowly getting back into footy now.”

Then-RA chief executive Raelene Castle received death threats after tearing up his contract.

“We had to close down the office and have extra security, and my house had to be checked out to make sure that it was safe and that no one could get into it or find me,” Castle said in 2020.

“The reality of it is that we were very firm in our values. So we’re very clear that his social media messaging was totally inappropriate. It was a breach of an employment contract.

“But it was also about the values the organisation stood for, and unless you’re actually prepared to stand up and back in those values, and say, ‘Yes, that’s what we believe in and this is who we stand for as an organisation’, then those values don’t mean anything to anyone.”

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