Marcus Smith signs new £230,000-a-season contract to become the world's highest-paid teenager

Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston admits the club have made a statement signing to fend off other clubs from poaching the young England protégé

Marcus Smith has signed a new contract with Harlequins worth £230,000-a-season (Getty)

Harlequins will make Marcus Smith the highest-paid teenager in world rugby after the 18-year-old fly-half penned a new contract from next season that will see the England protégé earn £230,000-a-season, representing an increase of more than £200,000.

Smith has enjoyed a fantastic breakthrough this season after being thrown in at the deep end by Quins’ director of rugby, John Kingston, when he was named to start the opening league game of the season. Due to a combination of his own impressive form and injuries to other outside halves in Demetri Catrakilis and Tim Swiel, Smith has started 11 of Quins’ 13 Premiership matches this season, and is being seriously considered as a candidate for Eddie Jones’ England squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The club have elected to reward Smith – who turns 19 next month – for his breakthrough into the first team with his first professional contract, and Kingston revealed that part of the reasoning behind the new deal was to send out a message to their rivals that were already sniffing around the young fly-half.

“Although people are not entitled to sniff around, I have my ear to the ground and I am aware of people trying to induce and pull things,” Kingston told The Telegraph. “I am happy not to blow the whistle on them. But for me, the reality was that it was not helping Marcus and therefore I wanted to get it sorted and quickly resolved.”

He added: “I probably did not expect at the start of the season that he would be signing a professional deal this quickly,” Kingston admitted. “He had an academy contract. That senior contract I have given him, I am happy to tell you, takes him through to the summer of 2022.

“I very rarely announce those contract lengths, but in the case of Marcus I have no problem with people knowing. I want people to know that when we say long-term, it really is long-term.

“He had earned the right to be treated into the senior squad and therefore I believed it was the right thing to do.”


 Smith has started 11 of Harlequins' 13 Premiership games this season 
 (Getty)

Smith still had 18 months to run on his academy contract, which saw him paid under £30,000-a-year, meaning that other clubs were not allowed to speak to him regarding a move until January next year. Having completed his A levels at Brighton College last summer, Smith has been able to focus fully on rugby this season and has been named as an ‘apprentice’ in the last three England training squads, and there is a belief that he could be handed his first international appearance in 2018 as Jones looks to complete his squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.