Outspoken footballer Israel Folau’s rugby career is in tatters and officials have made it clear he’s not welcome to return to the NRL.
But he still has a place on ‘Team Jesus’ at home with his wife Maria and big, Christian family.
Folau, 30, is apparently unrepentant after his latest fire-and-brimstone Instagram post where he claimed homosexuals, atheists and ‘fornicators’ are going to hell.
His inflammatory post and consequences that follow make up just the latest episode in Folau’s rollercoaster ride of a career.
The young Polynesian man rose to fame as a talented rugby league player from Brisbane, only to hand over his entire salary to his mum and dad, lose his religion and find it all over again.
But while he fights to save his footballing career in Australia, Folau has recently made it clear his priority is ‘Team Jesus’ – the couple’s term for their union with each other, God and their families.
Israel Folau and his wife Maria are devoted to each other and describe themselves as collectively being on ‘#TeamJesus’
Folau as a young boy (centre) with three of his five siblings. Folau says his family is ‘everything’ to him and as a 21-year-old footballer he gave his entire salary to his parents
Folau prompted national outrage when he shared this post to his 325,000 followers declaring ‘HELL’ awaits homosexuals, liars, thieves, athiests and fornicators
In a candid Good Weekend interview three years ago, Folau told writer Tim Elliott that God intervened directly in his life.
‘He (God) is what controls me to make sure I’m stable,’ Folau said. ‘He is my GPS’.
Folau’s family is deeply involved in The Truth of Jesus Christ Church in Kenthurst, in Sydney’s north west.
His father, Eni, is a top priest, with videos showing he largely preaches there in his native language of Tongan.
Family, and the respect of his father, are very important to Folau.
At the typically selfish age of 21, Folau surrendered his eye-popping $500,000 Brisbane Broncos pay packet to his parents.
Further money was tithed from his income to the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints.
In return, he was paid a small allowance, and allowed a prepaid mobile phone.
‘I just get enough for myself each week … that works well for me,’ Folau told The Sunday Telegraph in 2010.’
By his side: Folau’s wife Maria joined him as he fought for his career with Rugby Australia officials on Friday. The organisation says its intention is to tear up his contract
Both Israel and Maria use the ‘#TeamJesus’ hashtag on Instagram
Despite his own misgivings, Folau left the NRL for the Greater Western Sydney Giants for the huge sum of $4.2 million over four years at his father’s urging.
Folau recalled in a blog post for Player’s Voice that his father said: ‘The AFL offer is too good to turn down.’
‘You can improve the lives of everyone.’
Folau wrote: ‘I was hurting inside, but I didn’t talk back.
I tried to fill (the void in my life) with other things. Alcohol. Women. Sins.
Israel Folau in a PlayersVoice blog post about life after his Mormon faith
‘My family was – and still is – everything to me. I didn’t want to be the son that was selfish and arrogant and let his family down.
‘So I did what my Dad wanted to do and signed.’
His AFL career never quite took off.
Folau confessed he only ‘finally felt free’ when two years later he told his father he had enough and was leaving the Giants
‘I was finally doing something I wanted to do and given myself a chance to grow as a person.
‘It opened everything up … because of it, my Dad and I have a ten times better relationship than we used to.’
From sins to salvation ‘living for Jesus Christ’
Folau is seen giving a youth sermon where he slams ‘heathens’ who join in Christmas and Easter traditions
Folau may have adopted Old Testament rhetoric in his social media posts over the last year, but he hasn’t always been so devout.
He confessed in a Player’s Voice post that the family’s departure from the Mormon Church in 2009 ‘left a huge void in my life’.
‘I tried to fill it with other things. Alcohol. Women. Sins.’
Folau said playing top-level NRL from a young age ‘opened me to a world of temptation I had never been exposed to before.
‘I had the means to indulge in that, but not the wisdom to understand what it really met’.
It was when the family joined a new church that he truly embraced his faith, having ‘experienced God’s love for the first time’.
‘I have tried to live my life in God’s footsteps ever since,’ he wrote.
‘Repent sins, turn to god’: Folau often celebrates his try-scoring by gazing to the heavens
Folau caught the nation’s attention in 2017 when he said, quite politely, that he would not be voting for same sex marriage in the postal vote.
‘I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions. but personally, I will not support gay marriage,’ he tweeted.
In a strange coincidence Folau married his wife, Maria on the same day as the plebiscite result.
Questions started to be asked about whether Folau was pushing it too far with a vitriolic reply to a punter’s question about gay people on Instagram.
Folau said their destiny was ‘HELL… unless they repent of their sins and turn to God’.
He was warned in no uncertain terms by rugby officials, setting off a bitter debate about whether his outspokeness about his beliefs was acceptable.
‘Team Jesus’: Folau married his wife Maria on the same day as the marriage equality vote result
Throughout it all, Folau has had constant support in his wife Maria.
Maria recently paid tribute to their marriage by saying ‘we have always kept Christ in the forefront … growing our faith together as husband and wife’.
Other members of his family were uncertain of what was happening on Friday.
Brother Eni Jr told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I’m not really sure what’s actually been happening, I haven’t really been following it’.
Folau and Maria had coffee with two Rugby Australia officials on Friday morning and seemed happy – despite the mortal threat to his career.
Asked whether he regretted what he had said, Folau simply told a Nine News reporter ‘no’.
‘Team Jesus’ then jumped in a car and rode away to an uncertain future, rock solid in their faith.