Who’s the best young player he’s ever coached? What was up with the goatee? And has he spoken to Craig Foster recently? Your questions answered by Ange Postecoglou.
Page 1 of 3 | Single page
Despite being out of the game for over six months, Ange Postecoglou still looks every bit the football manager as he poses in a three-quarter length grey coat and purple shirt for our cameraman. That might just be because coaching is in his blood.
An NSL title winner as both a player and coach at South Melbourne, he became the national youth teams coach in 2000, with victory over eventual winners Brazil in the 2003 World Youth Championship a high point.
But a series of poor recent results saw his contract lapse in February of this year and one of our brightest young coaches found himself out of football for the first time in over two and a half decades.
Which means there’s all the more time to answer your questions.
What’s your first footballing memory?
Jay Tribune, via email
Watching-wise it would be the FA Cup Final in 1974 between Fulham and West Ham. I was about eight or nine years old and my dad got me up for it. The whole Wembley thing and the mystique of the Cup completely captured my imagination and then for every Saturday night from then on there was a big match to watch and I was hooked. As for playing, I remember trying out for the school soccer team when I was six or seven and getting a real buzz about being able to play with all my mates. My dad was a huge football fan in Greece and that influenced me. I did play AFL for one year and I actually won a trophy for most improved player, but when I took it home my dad wasn’t impressed. So that’s when I decided I had to play soccer.
Was your footballing youth the typical tale of immigrant being ostracised and given shit for liking football. Any good stories from your youth?
Con Christodoulou, Melbourne
Yeah, growing up was typical of that kind of stuff. At high school the Aussie rules team was the big team and everyone loved those kids but there were a few other kids with similar backgrounds as myself and we said we wanted to have a soccer team. We organised ourselves mostly and it was my first real coaching gig. I was 12 years old and I’d had a year at South Melbourne and they said you have the most experience so you can be the coach. And we weren’t a bad side to be honest. But the biggest slap in the face came at the guernsey presentation. We were all buzzing and getting excited about what the shirt would look like, especially as our high school colours were green and gold. They presented the AFL shirts first and they had these really nice green ones and then presented ours and we were given the school’s previous year’s Aussie rules jumpers. So we played the whole season in tight footy shorts and v-neck, sleeveless woolly jumpers. It was so embarrassing. The happy ending was that we actually won the all-high school championships that year but even in the photo we look absolutely ridiculous.
What is harder – winning the NSL title as a player or a manager?
Adnan Choo, via website
That’s a tough one because it’s a different feeling. As a player you can only really control your own destiny and I was pretty fortunate that I played in good teams. I won my first NSL championship in 1984 as an 18 year-old in my first year of senior football and we had a cracking side. Every player we had was an international: Alan Davidson, Oscar Crino, Kenny Murphy and I was the youngster in the team that kind of came along for the ride. I assume that my contribution to the team was OK but it was far from significant. But as a manager you really have to put all the pieces together and there are so many ingredients you have to get right.
You were coached by the great Ferenc Puskas at South Melbourne for a couple of seasons. What are your memories of the Hungarian master?
Jo Briggs, via email
The most fantastic experience of my playing career was being coached by Ferenc Puskas. He was a good coach, not anything exceptional, but as a man I learnt so much from him. We used to call him “boss” because to us we couldn’t call him “Ferenc” because he was such a legend. We used to pester him all the time for stories from his career. We’d say, “Boss, tell us about the European Cup Final that you scored a hat-trick in. What was that like?” and he would say, “Oh yeah, it was alright. We had some good players” and he’d be the same when he spoke about beating England at Wembley or playing in a World Cup Final. He was such a humble man. And he kept us humble as a result. It was a little bit like being coached by your grandfather – if it was raining during training he would say, “Come on, lads, time to go in now. You’ll catch a cold.” The other thing I remember was how good he was in training. When we would run around the pitch warming up he would place five balls down on the edge of the box and tell the keeper where he was going to put the ball and then score all five anyway. He had a wonderful left foot even when his playing days were over.
Do you think your 1999 South Melbourne side could’ve turned over last season’s Victory side?
Frank Pienaar, via email
I get asked that a lot and I think they probably would have. We had a lot of very good players that ended up playing at a very decent level. The test of that team was when we went to the World Club Championships in Brazil in 1999. And I got a bit annoyed when they kept on pumping up the Sydney vs Urawa Reds game as the biggest game ever for an Australian club side but it pales into insignificance when you look at what South Melbourne did. We went to Brazil to play against the treble-winning Manchester United side and Vasco De Gama, who had Romario and Edmundo up front and five World Cup winners in the side. We lost 2-0 to Vasco but played really well, lost 3-0 to Necaxa and 2-0 to Man United and we held our own in every game. That was testament to how good our side was that we did so well against full-time professionals. Remember we were only semi-pro. I think the Victory last year were phenomenal but I think the strength of the A-League has yet to reach the standard of the NSL at its peak.
Considering the ethnic connections that the FFA has stayed away from, do you think South Melbourne should be the next team to have a Hyundai A-League licence?
Adam G, via email
I personally doubt they ever will.
I think the A-League was set up as a clear distinction to what went in the past, which is a bit of a shame, but that’s the direction they’ve gone. I think the next A-League licence in Melbourne will be a new entity and not an existing team. It’s been set up in a certain way and it has been a success. You can’t argue with 20,000 members and 40,000 to 50,000 people going to the games. And that’s unfortunate for South Melbourne that the baggage of the old NSL is attached to them a bit and it would take a long time, a total rejuvenation for them to get rid of that stigma. I’d love to see them in the A-League, I just don’t see it happening.
An NSL title winner as both a player and coach at South Melbourne, he became the national youth teams coach in 2000, with victory over eventual winners Brazil in the 2003 World Youth Championship a high point.
But a series of poor recent results saw his contract lapse in February of this year and one of our brightest young coaches found himself out of football for the first time in over two and a half decades.
Which means there’s all the more time to answer your questions.
What’s your first footballing memory?
Jay Tribune, via email
Watching-wise it would be the FA Cup Final in 1974 between Fulham and West Ham. I was about eight or nine years old and my dad got me up for it. The whole Wembley thing and the mystique of the Cup completely captured my imagination and then for every Saturday night from then on there was a big match to watch and I was hooked. As for playing, I remember trying out for the school soccer team when I was six or seven and getting a real buzz about being able to play with all my mates. My dad was a huge football fan in Greece and that influenced me. I did play AFL for one year and I actually won a trophy for most improved player, but when I took it home my dad wasn’t impressed. So that’s when I decided I had to play soccer.
Was your footballing youth the typical tale of immigrant being ostracised and given shit for liking football. Any good stories from your youth?
Con Christodoulou, Melbourne
Yeah, growing up was typical of that kind of stuff. At high school the Aussie rules team was the big team and everyone loved those kids but there were a few other kids with similar backgrounds as myself and we said we wanted to have a soccer team. We organised ourselves mostly and it was my first real coaching gig. I was 12 years old and I’d had a year at South Melbourne and they said you have the most experience so you can be the coach. And we weren’t a bad side to be honest. But the biggest slap in the face came at the guernsey presentation. We were all buzzing and getting excited about what the shirt would look like, especially as our high school colours were green and gold. They presented the AFL shirts first and they had these really nice green ones and then presented ours and we were given the school’s previous year’s Aussie rules jumpers. So we played the whole season in tight footy shorts and v-neck, sleeveless woolly jumpers. It was so embarrassing. The happy ending was that we actually won the all-high school championships that year but even in the photo we look absolutely ridiculous.
What is harder – winning the NSL title as a player or a manager?
Adnan Choo, via website
That’s a tough one because it’s a different feeling. As a player you can only really control your own destiny and I was pretty fortunate that I played in good teams. I won my first NSL championship in 1984 as an 18 year-old in my first year of senior football and we had a cracking side. Every player we had was an international: Alan Davidson, Oscar Crino, Kenny Murphy and I was the youngster in the team that kind of came along for the ride. I assume that my contribution to the team was OK but it was far from significant. But as a manager you really have to put all the pieces together and there are so many ingredients you have to get right.
You were coached by the great Ferenc Puskas at South Melbourne for a couple of seasons. What are your memories of the Hungarian master?
Jo Briggs, via email
The most fantastic experience of my playing career was being coached by Ferenc Puskas. He was a good coach, not anything exceptional, but as a man I learnt so much from him. We used to call him “boss” because to us we couldn’t call him “Ferenc” because he was such a legend. We used to pester him all the time for stories from his career. We’d say, “Boss, tell us about the European Cup Final that you scored a hat-trick in. What was that like?” and he would say, “Oh yeah, it was alright. We had some good players” and he’d be the same when he spoke about beating England at Wembley or playing in a World Cup Final. He was such a humble man. And he kept us humble as a result. It was a little bit like being coached by your grandfather – if it was raining during training he would say, “Come on, lads, time to go in now. You’ll catch a cold.” The other thing I remember was how good he was in training. When we would run around the pitch warming up he would place five balls down on the edge of the box and tell the keeper where he was going to put the ball and then score all five anyway. He had a wonderful left foot even when his playing days were over.
Do you think your 1999 South Melbourne side could’ve turned over last season’s Victory side?
Frank Pienaar, via email
I get asked that a lot and I think they probably would have. We had a lot of very good players that ended up playing at a very decent level. The test of that team was when we went to the World Club Championships in Brazil in 1999. And I got a bit annoyed when they kept on pumping up the Sydney vs Urawa Reds game as the biggest game ever for an Australian club side but it pales into insignificance when you look at what South Melbourne did. We went to Brazil to play against the treble-winning Manchester United side and Vasco De Gama, who had Romario and Edmundo up front and five World Cup winners in the side. We lost 2-0 to Vasco but played really well, lost 3-0 to Necaxa and 2-0 to Man United and we held our own in every game. That was testament to how good our side was that we did so well against full-time professionals. Remember we were only semi-pro. I think the Victory last year were phenomenal but I think the strength of the A-League has yet to reach the standard of the NSL at its peak.
Considering the ethnic connections that the FFA has stayed away from, do you think South Melbourne should be the next team to have a Hyundai A-League licence?
Adam G, via email
I personally doubt they ever will.
I think the A-League was set up as a clear distinction to what went in the past, which is a bit of a shame, but that’s the direction they’ve gone. I think the next A-League licence in Melbourne will be a new entity and not an existing team. It’s been set up in a certain way and it has been a success. You can’t argue with 20,000 members and 40,000 to 50,000 people going to the games. And that’s unfortunate for South Melbourne that the baggage of the old NSL is attached to them a bit and it would take a long time, a total rejuvenation for them to get rid of that stigma. I’d love to see them in the A-League, I just don’t see it happening.
Related Articles
Ange: Still a place for Lucas in Brazil
Ange to launch hunt for hidden gems
