Anthony Joshua is Britain's most wanted man since the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs went on the run.

The Olympic super-heavyweight champion's UK Sport funded "amateur" contract with GB Boxing expires at the end of the month and the biggest fight of the year is to get his signature on a professional contract.

If he does sign, it will make fellow gold medallist Jessica Ennis's projected £6 million ($9 million/€7 million) earnings on the back of 2012 glory seem like chickenfeed.

Every leading British promoter, and a fistful from America, have been in touch with Joshua either directly or via his agent. But so far, none have removed the chequebook from their inside pocket.

That could be about to change.

Britain's super-heavyweight gold medal-winner Anthony Joshua is one of the hottest properties in boxing

Joshua himself is keeping things under wraps - all interviews carry the condition that questions about turning pro are off limits - but boxing buzzes with speculation about an intriguing possibility.

Recently, Joshua has been to Jamaica for talks with the 47-old-year-old former Olympic champion and undisputed world kingpin Lennox Lewis.

Could it be that Lewis will manage or mentor him, with David Haye's guru Adam Booth as his trainer, under the banner of US promoters Golden Boy?

Lewis, who was among the first to congratulate Joshua in London, is known to want a more hands-on role in boxing while Oscar de La Hoya's Golden Boy - numero uno in the US - now have a licence to promote in Britain after signing Joshua's 2012 ring-mate Anthony Ogogo, the charismatic middleweight bronze medallist.

Joshua's fellow British Olympian Anthony Ogogo went pro in December last year, signing with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy promotions

Additionally, they are believed to be keen to acquire Britain's other Olympic gold medallist, bantamweight champion  Luke Campbell, who, like Joshua, has not fought since his London final seven months ago.

But while Campell's feet have been Dancing on Ice, Joshua has been putting his up.

Well, at least one of them, following an operation for the removal of a carbuncle!

That may not sound too glamorous, but glamour is what it is all about should Joshua go pro.

In boxing terms, the 23-year-old Londoner is still a baby, but at 6ft 6in and nearly 17st, he has vital commodities for greatness; a good chin, a decent punch, a touch of charm to match his Ali-like looks and a highly marketable personality.

The British-born son of Nigerian parents, as a kid, Joshua was a talented footballer, and could run 11 seconds for the 100 metres when he was 15. His fleet-footedness helps make him special; a more nimble, less robotic version of Frank Bruno.

However he could have thrown it all away a year before the Games when he was arrested for a drugs offence and suspended from the British squad. He received a 12-month community order and 100 hours' unpaid work. "That arrest changed a lot," he said. "It forced me to grow up and respect my responsibilities."

So the multi-million dollar question is, will he or won't he?

Frank Warren, to whom Bruno turned for help in finally winning his world title, says that arguments for Joshua remaining in what used to be called amateur boxing are flawed: "He needs the fresh challenges a pro career would offer, and he would be better protected at this stage of his career."

Promoter Frank Warren has stated that Joshua "needs the fresh challenges a pro career would offer"

Well, he would say that as he would love to have Big Josh as the flagship of his own boxing fleet now that he has lost star man Ricky Burns, among others, to Eddie Hearn, the new kid in the promotional ring.

Fast Eddie, backed by an exclusive contract with Sky Sports, is hoovering up most of the available talent, and Joshua has been high on his shopping list. But he insists: "I am not in the business of talking telephone numbers."

But some are; notably Golden Boy, whose chief executive Richard Schaefer, a former Swiss banker, can produce figures that would make Joshua potentially one of the richest young men in world sport; such is the desperation for a charismatic Western heavyweight superhero to end of the robotic domination of the Klitschko clan.

But since his Olympic triumph, Joshua has made it clear that he is in no rush to become a prized fighter.

After all, he still has much to learn, and lucrative endorsements with top-whack Lottery funding, plus the prospect of a tidy few quid should he change his mind and opt to take part in the next World Series Boxing (WSB) tournament for the British Lionhearts, offer a comfortable alternative.

Moreover, the WSB would be a practical apprenticeship for an eventual fully-fledged pro career, as it is in itself professional in all but name. As are the Olympics from Rio onwards.

The tournament will now be known as Olympic boxing instead of amateur boxing following the removal of the word "amateur", which was ditched alongside headguards and the invidious computerised scoring.

Now, bouts will be marked on the pro-styled ten points per round system by ringside judges, which should suit Joshua's style.

Joshua was awarded an MBE for his services to boxing in the Queen's New Year's Honours List, along with fellow boxers Nicola Adams and Luke Campbell

Then there is the emotional pull of spilling blood for Queen and country after being rewarded with an MBE.

But by rejecting the pro overtures, or putting them on hold, there is an inherent risk.

A single defeat will put a potential fortune in jeopardy.

And as Britain's Beijing 2008 heavyweight bronze medal winner David Price will testify, it takes only one punch to destroy a dream.

The money men from both sides of the Atlantic won't be hammering quite so hard on Joshua's West London door should he elect to go to the World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in October and get beaten.

And that is a real possibilty, for in the Olympics he encountered Kazakhstan's Ivor Dychko, winning by a two point margin (13-11). Would you you bet on Joshua getting a similar decision in Dychko's home ring?

Staying on even longer until Rio 2016 is even more hazardous, for defeat there would mean that 2012 gold bullion suffering instant devaluation on the world stock market.

Again, we look at Joshua's performances in London, where his victory over Italian Roberto Cammarelle in the final might have gone either way, and more significantly against his opening round opponent Erislandy Savon, nephew of Cuba's legendary three-time Olympic and six-time world amateur champion, Felix Savon.
 
Joshua sneaked a decision that at very best was debatable against a young man rated as the best heavyweight in the tournament.

He may not even be the favourite in Rio as the smart and elusive counter-punching Savon, also only 23, is considered by many good judges as an even better prospect, and odds-on to win the gold.

But by then Joshua may be sitting on a goldmine of his own.

Time to take the dosh, Josh?

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.