Greek-born Australian former football player and former head coach of the Australia national football team, Ange Postecoglou (Άγγελος Ποστέκογλου) was born on August 27, 1965, in Nea Filadelfeia, Greece.
At the age of five, Ange and his family emigrated to Australia by boat. In his early years, he grew up playing Australian rules football and is a lifelong supporter of the Carlton Football Club.
After first joining South Melbourne Football Club as a nine year old, Postecoglou played 193 games from 1984-1993, before moving into coaching.
In his international playing career, Postecoglou represented Australia on four occasions between 1986-1988.
During his career, Postecoglou also coached South Melbourne from 1996-2000. He led them to consecutive National Soccer League titles in 1997–98 and 1998–99, as well as winning the 1999 Oceania Club Championship, which in turn led to their participation in the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship.
After the 1999–2000 NSL season, he stood down from the South Melbourne coaching role when he was appointed coach of the Australian youth team in 2000. During his tenure, he played a role in identifying and developing Australian players.
He is the only person to have been involved in all four of South Melbourne's NSL title-winning teams, the first two as a player and the latter two as coach.
In 2007, Postecoglou coached one of the top Greek professional footballers, Andreas Samaris.
From March to December 2008, he coached Panachaiki.
On October 16 2009, he was signed as the new Brisbane Roar coach, replacing Frank Farina. He led them to the Premiership and Championship in the 2010–11 season.
In the 2011–12 season, Postecoglou became the most successful Australian domestic football (soccer) coach, with four national titles.
On 24 April 2012, he announced his resignation as head coach of Brisbane Roar. Two days later, it was announced that he had signed a three-year contract with A-League club Melbourne Victory as head coach.
In October 2013, Postecoglou was appointed head coach of Australia on a five-year contract, replacing German Holger Osieck. He was tasked with regenerating the Australian national team. In his first game as Australia's manager, a home friendly match against Costa Rica, Australia won 1–0, courtesy of a goal from Tim Cahill.
Postecoglou coached Australia to win its first AFC Asian Cup in 2015.
In 2016, the Greek National Football team faced the Australian team in two friendly matches. Samaris and Postecoglou reunited.
On November 22 2017, two weeks after Australia qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Postecoglou announced his resignation as Socceroos coach.
A month later, Yokohama F. Marinos announced they had appointed Postecoglou as head coach. After an initial difficult start to the season, he guided the club to the final of the J-League Cup, and a 12th place finish in the league. Although the club finished with the second highest number of goals scored in the season, they also conceded the third most goals of any club during the season.
After receiving interest from the Greek National Football team to become their new manager, Postecoglou extended his contract with Yokohama F. Marinos.
Yokohama's belief in Postecoglou was rewarded during the 2019 season when he guided the club to their first J. League title in 15 years. In doing so, he became the first Australian manager to win a league title in Japan.
Ange Postecoglou is married to Georgia, and they have three sons- James, Max and Alexi.
Xronia Polla Ange, Happy 55th Birthday!
