Marcus Bai is a Papua New Guinean former rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. He was born on the 11th of October 1972. Primarily a winger, he played his final season in 2006 for English super League team Bradford Bulls. He is the only man to win the world club challenge with three different clubs.
In 2005 he was minutes away from being the first person to win all of the major domestic competition in both Australia and England, which include the NRL, Super League, World Cup Championship, League Leaders Shield and Challenge Cup, but how ever Hull struck with minutes to go in the Challenge Cup final to deny Leeds the cup and him a place in the history books. It was his mistake that ultimately gifted Hull the cup.
Astonishingly Marcus Bai never played junior rugby league at any level, although he did play Aussie rules football as a school boy in West New Britain province.
A Papua New Guinean international, he has represented his country on numerous occasions including the 1995 rugby league world cup.
He began his career playing for the Port Moresby Vipers in Port Moresby, and then began his professional career playing for Hull in England where he made 8 appearances for them in 1997.
He then moved to Gold Coast Chargers in Australia. He played the final 18 games of the season scoring 5 tries. That year he was selected to play for the Rest Of The world side to play a match against an ARL test side. Although his spell for the Gold Coast was a brief one, it allowed Bai to make a name for himself, while in the process prompting Melbourne Storms to sign him in 1998 in their inaugural season.
He was named Dally M Winger of the year in his first year in 1998 at the Melbourne Storms. In his second season for Melbourne Storms he played in every game, culminating in his appearance on the wing in Melbourne's 1999 grand final winning side, in which he got "Man of the Match".
In 2000, Marcus Bai again represented his country, this time, at the 2000 rugby league world cup playing in all four of his country's games and scoring three tries. That year of the storms, Bai was hampered with injuries, including being cut on his right arm by a steel advertising board.
In all he spent six years playing for the Melbourne Storms, playing 144 games, and scoring a total of 70 tries.
After displaying his ability with some impressive performances for Melbourne Storms, Marcus Bai transferred to the English super League Club, The Leeds Rhinos.
His debut for the club was against CastleFord Tigers on the Boxing day festive challenge during which he scored a try after coming off bench.
His full first team debut came against the London Broncos on the opening day of the 2004 Super League season. He announced his arrival at the club in the best possible fashion, by scoring a hat-trick on his full debut Infront of the Leeds Rhinos home crowd. Marcus Bai became an instant hit with the Leeds Fans after that. Later that year in his first full season for Leeds, Marcus Bai scored a hat-trick in the grand final elimination which helped Leeds on their way to booking their place at old Trafford.
In 2005, Marcus Bai was again impressive, making 32 appearances and scoring 19 tries in all competitions. In all he spent two full seasons with Leeds Rhinos making 63 appearances and scoring 45 tries, including four hat- tricks.
He is currently just one of seven players to win a grand final in the premier rugby league competitions in both Europe Super League and Australia National Rugby league.
He helped the Leeds Rhinos to their 2004 grand final success against the Bradford Bulls, and also on Leeds Rhino's side that lost a year later in the grand final ironically to the Bradford Bulls.
Marcus Bai left the Leeds Rhinos after spending two successful years with them. He penned a contract with the Bradford Bulls for the 2006 super League season.
Marcus Bai got his Bradford Bulls career off to a good start by scoring 2 tries in his debut in 2006 world cup challenge match against the west tigers, in which Bradford Bulls won 30-10. At the end of his first season with the Bradford Bulls, Marcus Bai was awarded the best back of the year award by the club. Marcus Bai signed a one year extension to his contract at Bradford Bulls in 2006 which would have kept him Grattan stadium until the end of 2007, how're in December 2007, Marcus Bai announced his retirement from the sport with immediate effect.
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