Carlos Tuimavave’s next club revealed as Championship side win race for ex-Hull FC star

Featherstone Rovers are closing in on a deal to sign Carlos Tuimavave for the 2025 season, Love Rugby League has learned.

Tuimavave is a free agent since his contract with Hull FC expired at the end of last season. Reports had initially suggested that the 32-year-old Samoa international was set to switch codes and potentially join Doncaster.

However, Tuimavave appeared to confirm he would be remaining in league when his release from Hull was finalised in September, after insisting he would be continuing to play league in 2025.

And Love Rugby League has learned that Rovers have emerged as the favourites to land his signature, with a deal close to being completed in what would represent a significant coup for Featherstone as they look to respond to a disappointing 2024 campaign.

A number of Championship clubs were interested in Tuimavave’s signature but Featherstone are understood to be confident that they are at the front of the queue to sign a player who will drop down to the second tier for the first time in his career.

Tuimavave made almost 200 appearances for Hull during a nine-year stint with the club that saw him solidify a reputation as one of the club’s finest overseas imports. He featured in both of the club’s Challenge Cup triumphs in 2016 and 2017 at Wembley Stadium.

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But injuries hampered the centre’s ability to regularly feature in recent seasons. He was limited to just 15 appearances for the club in 2024 before the Black and Whites announced they would be parting company with him at the end of the season.

However, Tuimavave’s time in rugby league is far from over: and he looks set to continue playing with Featherstone in 2025. He had received expressions of interest from Super League clubs in the North West – but is keen to remain as local to Hull as possible for family reasons, Love Rugby League has been told.

And Featherstone look set to strike and pull off an impressive piece of transfer business to add to James Ford’s squad for 2025. Ford has been given the backing of the club’s new owner and chairman, Paddy Handley after a sixth-placed finish in 2024.

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