Ben Barba

Benjamin Barba

Personal information
Full name	Benjamin Barba
Nickname	X-Factor
Born	(1989-06-13) 13 June 1989 (age 27) Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Height	176 cm (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight	91 kg (14 st 5 lb)
Playing information
Rugby league
Position	Fullback, Five-eighth
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 2008–13 Canterbury Bulldogs 97 72 0 0 288 2014 Brisbane Broncos 25 8 0 0 32 2015–16 Cronulla Sharks 46 19 0 0 76 Total 168 99 0 0 396 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 2011–16 Indigenous All Stars 5 4 0 0 16 2011 Prime Minister's XIII 1 0 0 0 0
Rugby union
Position	Centre, Wing, Fullback
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 2017– Toulon 1 0 0 0 0
As of 10 July 2016 Source:

Benjamin 'Ben' Barba (born 13 June 1989 in Darwin, Northern Territory) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer for RC Toulonnais and former rugby league footballer who last played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks of the National Rugby League. Barba won the Dally M Medal award for best player of the year in 2012 while he was at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Barba previously played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2008-2013 and the Brisbane Broncos in 2014. He primarily plays fullback and five-eighth.

Of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Afghan descent, at a young age, Barba and his family moved from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Mackay in Queensland. During his time in Queensland he played all of his junior rugby league for the North Devils, Mackay and attended Mackay State High School and St Patrick's College.

Barba signed with the Bulldogs in 2007 and joined the club in the middle of the 2007 season. At his first season at Belmore, Barba played in the Jersey Flegg competition, where he scored 130 points in 11 games.

In his second season at the Bulldogs, on 9 January 2008, Barba signed a contract extension keeping him at the club till the end of the 2010 season. Barba played most of the season in the Toyota Cup Under 20s competition, scoring 26 tries in 27 games. Canterbury coach Steve Folkes stated that he was still too young and it would be a couple of years till he would become a first grader. As the season went on, Canterbury kept on losing games and were possibly going to win the wooden spoon resulting in the fans urging that Barba be put into first grade.