Buddy Farah
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Badawi Farah | ||
| Date of birth | 18 August 1978 | ||
| Place of birth | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Marconi Stallions | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1997–2001 | Marconi Stallions | 74 | (2) |
| 2001–2003 | Wollongong Wolves | 31 | (0) |
| 2003 | Nepean Association | 7 | (2) |
| 2003–2004 | Nejmeh | ||
| 2004 | Marconi Stallions | 0 | (0) |
| 2005 | Bankstown City Lions | 0 | (0) |
| 2005–2006 | Selangor FA | ||
| 2006 | Keflavík | 4 | (0) |
| 2007–2008 | A.P.I.A. Leichhardt Tigers | ||
| National team | |||
| 1997–2000 | Australia U-23 | 10 | (0) |
| 2000–2004 | Lebanon | 20 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Buddy Farah (Arabic: بادي فرح; born 18 August 1978 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian football agent and a former footballer of Lebanese Maronite descent. After beginning his career with Marconi Stallions in the Australian National Soccer League, he went on to play for Nejmeh in the Lebanese Premier League and Keflavík in the Iceland Úrvalsdeild before retiring in 2008. Farah represented the Australia Under-23 team prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Lebanon from 2000 to 2004.
Farah played youth football for Australian National Soccer League club Marconi Stallions where he joined the club's first-team in 1997. In 2001, he was transferred to fellow NSL side Wollongong Wolves where he would stay until 2003. At the end of the 2002–2003 season Wollongong had offered to renew Farah's contract, however, it was declined due to the low wage which was worth one-third of his previous contract.
On 28 August 2003, Farah signed a two-year contract with Lebanese Premier League club Nejmeh; the contract was worth at least six times what he would have been receiving if he had stayed at Wollongong; the contract was worth an estimated $220,000 (€170,000). Farah was the first Christian to be signed by the Muslim club, where he had established himself in the club's first-team while playing for Lebanon. Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal offered a fee of $1million (€770,000) to pry him away from Nejmeh, but the club president, Rafic Hariri, who at the time was Lebanon's Prime Minister, declined the offer. While at the club, Nejmeh reached the quarter-finals of the 2004 AFC Cup and played in the qualifying rounds of the 2004 AFC Champions League. In 2004 Farah sued Nejmeh over a pay dispute and alleged breach of contract. The club neglected Farah while he suffered a serious liver infection, which evolved into a near-death experience. Farah had been sent to hospital in early 2004, having been diagnosed with Hepatitis A, after eating contaminated seafood. He was treated in enough time to escape liver surgery. He then left Beirut for further treatment in Sydney, on the condition he'd return to Nejmeh after an agreed six-week period. During that time, Farah claimed that Nejmeh did not honour its financial commitments, as Farah refused to return to Lebanon due to the financial issue. Farah then pressed legal charges to Nejmeh's board of directions where his legal team were arguing that Farah had been robbed of income from representing Lebanon; the case's resolution was in the hands of a court in Lebanon.
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