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Joe Giddens/EMPICS Sport
Exit strategy

Paris, je t'aime? Roberts set to leave Cardiff Blues

Welsh centre Jamie Roberts could be on the way to Racing Metro after he turned down a new contract in Cardiff.

WALES CENTRE JAMIE Roberts is to leave the Cardiff Blues at the end of the season and could be on his way to Paris to play for Racing Metro.

Cardiff chief executive Richard Holland said that the club had hoped to persuade the 25-year-old Roberts to stay by offering him a deal that would have made him one of the best-paid players in Britain.

But he admitted that this was below what could be offered from other big-spending clubs, notably in France.

“The offer that we made to Jamie was an extremely attractive one and would have seen him become certainly the highest paid player in the Blues squad, and arguably in the UK,” Holland said.

“As a business we simply don’t have the resource to compete with the offers that Jamie has received.

“Naturally we are disappointed that Jamie has decided to leave the region but we wish him the best of luck with his career.”

Roberts, who is a product of the Blues Academy, made his debut for the region as a winger against the Ospreys in August 2007 and to date he has made 81 appearances and scored 17 tries.

He first played for Wales, also on the wing, against Scotland at the start of the 2008 Grand Slam season and has since won 44 caps for his country.

The Newport-born back, who is a medical student at Cardiff University and will sit his final exams during next year’s Six Nations tournament, was named as the Lions’ Player of the Series on their 2009 tour of South Africa.

Roberts returned to action in September after being sidelined for six months with a knee injury.

- © AFP, 2012

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