The Springboks lock was understood to have been offered up to £375,000 a year to sign on at Franklin's Gardens.
But Matfield turned down the offer to return to South Africa and the Blue Bulls.
The World Cup winner also revealed for the first ti
me that it was not only Saints and Toulon, where he has spent six months this season, who had offered big money for him to stay in Europe, but also French clubs Montpellier and Toulouse.
In the end his love for the country and the Bulls took him home.
"My decision to sign for the Bulls should not be seen as a shock to anyone because those who know me well. My heart has always been at the Bulls and if I ever had the chance to return I would take it," Matfield wrote in a South African newspaper column.
He said that he decided to return home for less cash than he will pick up with the Bulls.
"It didn't ever amount to money," he said. "I had a few options and the money at other clubs was always more than the Bulls offered me.
My heart is still in South Africa and I wanted to come home.
"I really considered going to Toulouse. They are a good team and would have offered me the opportunity to play Heineken Cup rugby.
"Then there was also Montpellier where a number of the ex-Blue Bulls are.
"Northampton offered me something completely different, and it was to try and build something similar to what we built under Heyneke Meyer at the Bulls."
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