Skip to main content
Daily Record

Remarkable Ange Postecolgou story from son of immigrant, Puskas influence, Celtic success, Tottenham move and net worth

The former Celtic boss who started life as an immigrant in Australia is on the verge of European silverware

Ange Postecoglou then and now
Ange Postecoglou then and now

He said he always wins a trophy in his second season and now Ange Postecoglou has the chance to back his own claim up.

Tottenham will take on Manchester United in the Europa League Final after seeing off Norwegian outfit Bodo/Glimt 5-1 on aggregate in the semis.


All of the Aussies' eggs were piled into this particular basket with Spurs struggling badly in the English Premier League.


But now Postecoglou can deliver a first trophy in 17 years for the North London club. Celtic fans know well he's no stranger to success, but his journey to the very top of football management had the most humble beginnings.

Record Sport looks at what's shaped Ange since his childhood days, the influence of his father and his life away from the dugout.

Early life

Postecoglou’s story doesn’t start in a dugout or on a training pitch. It began in Athens in 1965, under the shadow of a military junta. Writing in his book, Changing the Game: Football in Australia through my eyes, he wrote: "I was born in Athens, Greece, in 1965. My dad had a pretty successful business. He came from a line of merchants and furniture makers. As far as I'm aware, it was a pretty pain-free and middle-of-the-road existence.

Article continues below
Ange Postecoglou and his family in Greece, 1965
Ange Postecoglou and his family in Greece, 1965

"But around 1969, as the government commenced its acquisition, or nationalisation, of the land and businesses - including my parents' - the agitation to look somewhere else began. In a very short space of time, my family went from being settled to being very exposed. My father's ability to provide for my family was evaporating."

His parents, Dimitris and Voula, packed up their lives and boarded a ship to Australia, driven by little more than hope. Postecoglou was five years old when they arrived in Melbourne, a city that would shape him as much as football would.


Life wasn’t easy. His father worked long hours, rarely home, his mother struggled with a new language and culture. Football became the one place where young Ange felt at home. South Melbourne Hellas—a club built by Greek immigrants—was his introduction to the game, the place where he first kicked a ball and later, as a manager, won two national titles.

A young Ange Postecgolou
A young Ange Postecgolou

Even now, decades later, he fights to forget the sacrifices of his parents. “I don’t feel like I’m working every day,” he once said in an interview with The Times. “I feel like I’m living a dream that was founded by other people’s sacrifice, particularly my parents.


“I look at myself now, as a 55-year-old man and I just can't believe what my parents went through. What they would have gone through to take a young family halfway round the world, on a ship that takes us 30 days to a country where they don't speak the language; they don't know a soul, they don't have a house, they don't have jobs.

"People say they go to another country for a better life. My parents did not have a better life, they went to Australia to provide opportunities for me to have a better life.

Dad's influence

It was his father's love of the game that imprinted on a young Postecoglou, especially when time with his old man was limited due to him putting in the hours to provide.


But watching games in the early hours shaped how Ange thought about football and how he wanted his teams to play. He said: “All I remember is my father working hard. He'd be gone for work before I ate my breakfast and come home at night, have dinner, sit on the couch and fall asleep and go and do the same thing the next day.

"The only time I ever got to see any joy in my dad was when we went to the football on a Sunday. So that did make an impression on me, because I made a quick connection that football is something that makes him happy… so if I love this like he does, it will get me close to him.

Ange Postecoglou in charge of Brisbane Roar
Ange Postecoglou in charge of Brisbane Roar

“My childhood was sitting next to him at three o'clock in the morning and we were watching football from this side of the world and he would always point out the entertainers and the teams that were scoring goals. He'd say, ‘look at him, look at this team’ and that got into my subconscious and when I became a manager that's the kind of teams I wanted to produce.

"He's not with us now, he passed away a couple of years ago, but he's in my head. I know that and every time my team plays, I'll sometimes have an ugly 1-0 win and I know what he's saying: ‘Don't celebrate because that was crap’. I don't think that's unique, I think a lot of people resonate with that, understand that was how it was in my generation through having a similar upbringing. I just happen to be in a position where I can live that dream out.”

Worshipping Puskas

Puskas was one of Postecoglou's Sr's favourites. So when the Hungarian legend eventually became his son;s coach, it was surreal for Ange.


"When I talk about influences in my career and in my life obviously my father was the greatest influence of all.

“But in terms of other major influences, Puskas was right up there. I was really fortunate to spend two or three years with him. At the time, when he came to Australia, his English wasn’t great but he had taken Panathinaikos to the European Cup Final at Wembley so his Greek was decent.

Ange Postecoglou in his paying days for South Melbourne with his then manager and mentor Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas

“I was captain of the club at the time and I acted almost as his interpreter. He even wanted me to pick him up from home. So I’d pick him up in my s***y little car and I was embarrassed I had one of the world’s greatest footballers sitting in a little Datsun!

“We would spend hours together and for me that time was priceless. He taught me a lot about humility, being such a great man. If you treat people well, irrespective of what you’ve done in your life, they’ll give everything for you. He created that as the team environment. We all would literally die for him – we didn’t want to disappoint him.

“We had success, we won a championship with him and that’s one of my favourite photos mate – holding up the trophy alongside him."


Family life

Postecoglou doesn’t do charm. He’s blunt, focused, and rarely one for small talk — something his wife, Georgia, knows better than anyone. When they met in the 1990s at South Melbourne, where she was the club’s marketing manager and he the coach, she wasn’t impressed.

Ange Postecoglou and his wife Georgia
Ange Postecoglou and his wife Georgia

“He’s not charismatic, he’s not a charmer,” Georgia once admitted in the ABC documentary The Australian Story: The Age of Ange. “I didn’t get why people respected him so much.”


But it didn’t take long for her to see why. “It was only afterwards I got to understand him as a person," she added.

They’ve been together through every high and low — through sackings, moves across continents and moments when it all felt like it might fall apart. Postecoglou has never hidden the fact that, without her, he might not have made it through the toughest years.

Net worth

Postecoglou’s career has been a slow burn—no shortcuts, no big-money moves until he earned them. His first coaching jobs in Australia barely covered the bills, and when he was sacked as the national youth coach, he had to move in with his mother-in-law to make ends meet.

Article continues below

Now, he’s among the highest-paid managers in England. His reported salary at Tottenham sits at £5million per year, a significant step up from his Celtic days

Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.

Follow Daily Record:


Ange PostecoglouTottenham Hotspur FCManchester United FCCeltic FCEuropa LeagueScottish PremiershipEnglish Premier League
reach logo

At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the "Do Not Sell or Share my Data" button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.