Kobe Kobelco Steelers flyhalf Dan Carter will finish out the rest of the French first-division season with his former team Racing 92, the Top 14 club revealed Sunday.

The Japanese team said that Carter will return to Japan to play for Kobe after the Top 14 season ends. The next Top League season will not kick off until January 2020, following a break after the 2019 Rugby World Cup wraps up in November.

The 36-year-old Carter was named the 2018-2019 Top League MVP and Top Kicker in his first season in Japan after helping the Steelers win their first league title since 2003-2004.

He signed on with Kobe at the end of the 2017-2018 Northern Hemisphere season to be closer to his native New Zealand, and said upon joining he was considering ending his career in Japan after playing for two years.

The former All Black -- the highest scorer in test match history with 1,598 points in 112 games -- was pivotal in New Zealand's historic back-to-back World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015.

Before Kobe, Carter spent three years with Paris-based Racing, who are currently seventh on the Top 14 table, and helped the team to a league title in 2014.