"The fans were on my case. They told me - not very kindly - that they wanted the Kangaroo to hop back home", he says.
 
"We started badly, they sacked the coach that brought me there after six games and so there I was - a striker in a struggling team playing in the best competition in the world.
 
"It wasn't the best time."
 
It was a reality check for Frank, who had spent the last three years being treated like royalty in Belgium, where due to his success, was close to being a national hero.
 
"I went from the Penthouse to the Shithouse," says Farina today. "If you are winning, you don't pay at restaurants. You lose, you are a piece of garbage. They abuse you, they crucify you.
 
"They see it like this; we work all week for little money to pay for our season ticket and you get paid 100 times more than us to play and you play like shit?
 
"And fair enough." 
 
Frank was released from his contract at Bari and spent much of the next few years riddled with injury until he and wife Julie made the decision to come home.
 
"I always said when I am at a time in my career when I am not enjoying what I do, then it's time for a change." Frank says.
 
Frank is grateful to his wife Julie for going through the hard yards with him overseas.
 
"She found it difficult overseas, more so than me," he admits. "The different cultures, language barriers, being homesick.
 
"And she has always trusted the decisions I made and supported me through them - and I credit her for that."
 
The decision to come back home was an easy one for Frank, who had already been in touch with Brisbane Strikers about the opportunity to come back and play while still at the top of his game.
 
"I had to find that passion that I had lost," he explains. "And it was the best decision I made."
 
Frank's first season back in Australia in the old NSL proved successful enough to earn - surprisingly - an offer to become player/coach for the following year.
 
"I hadn't actively decided I would go into coaching and I was definitely surprised," he says. "But it was another challenge I wasn't willing to pass up, and so I accepted and told them I would give it a go."
 
The Brisbane Strikers went on to win the 1996/97 Championship in Frank's debut year as coach - in front of a packed Suncorp Stadium - which he figures wasn't ideal in hindsight.
 
"I thought to myself, well this coaching gig is just easy. I thought I was God," he says. "And just like it always does, reality set in and the only way to go from there was down."
 
Frank's second year as coach of Brisbane Strikers saw the team come third-last and although disappointed, he saw it as the wake up call he needed.
 
"I fell into coaching in a way that wasn't planned but again, like throughout my career, it was another challenge," he said.
 
Remarkably, it would only be two short years since winning the Championship with Brisbane Strikers that the ultimate challenge in football presented itself and a 35-year-old Frank Farina was unveiled as National Team Coach.
 
"It was probably politically motivated, my appointment," he reveals.
 
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