Farina, a former striker and coach for the Socceroos, will be presented with the medal at the annual PFA Awards in Brisbane on 13 June, just days after Papua New Guinea’s Nations Cup campaign is due to wrap up.
The 47-year-old becomes just the sixth person to receive the PFA’s highest honour, which indentifies a current or former player who demonstrates outstanding attributes of leadership, achievement as a player, commitment to fellow professionals and service and dedication to the game.
He joins the late Johnny Warren (who received his award posthumously), Joe Marston, Craig Johnston and Mark Viduka as a recipient of the medal.
“Frank Farina has demonstrated these attributes over a 30-year professional career,” outgoing PFA chief executive Brendan Schwab says.
“He has helped advance Australian football both here and overseas and is a worthy recipient of the Alex Tobin Medal. He rose to the top of Australian football at a time and in an environment when it was difficult to do so – let alone for a self-described skinny kid from regional Queensland via New Guinea.”
Prior to spending seven years abroad in Belgium, Italy and France, Farina earned an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scholarship in 1982 and then went on to play for the Canberra Arrows, Sydney City and Marconi in the now-defunct National Soccer League (NSL).
His transfer from Club Brugge to Italy’s Bari during the 1991 season made him the most expensive Australian player at the time – recouping the Belgian giants AUD 3.2 million.
At international level, he played in the 1983 World Youth Cup before representing the Socceroos 86 times, which included three World Cup qualifying campaigns – in 1986, 1990 and 1994.
“He was also the first of Australia’s successful ‘exports’ to come home,” Schwab says.
“And if being one of our earliest and highest-profile overseas Socceroos wasn’t enough, it was Frank’s return to the NSL in 1995, when he was still at the top of his game, that was a major boost to the development of the game.
“His return showed us what football was capable of in Australia because here was an exciting marquee player, in a geographically-based team, who brought greater professionalism to his club, improved the quality of play and attracted big crowds.”
As a coach, Farina won the 1997 NSL championship during his first year in charge at Brisbane Strikers.
In 1999, he was named coach of the Socceroos, spending six years at the helm before being replaced by Dutchman Guus Hiddink in 2005.
“He was appointed to coaching positions at a very young age, without the benefit of the professional coach education now available,” Schwab says.
Farina spent part of his childhood in Papua New Guinea and returned to the nation of his upbringing to coach the national team at the 2011 Pacific Games in Noumea, New Caledonia.
He was also in charge of the U-23 side that made the semi-finals of the OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifier in Taupo, New Zealand, in March.

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