Ange Postecoglou
Angelos Postecoglou is a soccer manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of club Nottingham Forest.
Born in Greece, Postecoglou grew up in Melbourne from the age of five. As a player, he spent most of his club career as a defender for South Melbourne Hellas and played four games for the Australia national team in the late 1980s. He began managing at South Melbourne Hellas in 1996, winning the National Soccer League twice and the OFC Champions League in 1999. He then led the national under-17 and under-20 teams.
Known for his heavily attacking style of play, dubbed "Angeball", Postecoglou managed Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory in the A-League, winning the Premiership in 2011 and the Championship in 2011 and 2012 with Brisbane Roar. He was the men's senior national team manager from 2013 to 2017, winning the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 and also going to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He won the J1 League with Yokohama F. Marinos in 2019, and then won five trophies in two seasons with Scottish side Celtic. He became head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in 2023, where he won the UEFA Europa League in 2025, marking the club's first trophy since 2008 and its first European trophy since 1984, before being dismissed as the triumph came amid a historically poor domestic performance that season. In September 2025, Postecoglou was appointed manager of Nottingham Forest, but was sacked after 39 days having failed to win any of his eight matches in charge.
Early life
Angelos Postecoglou was born on 27 August 1965 in Nea Filadelfeia, a suburb of Athens, Greece, to a family that migrated from the Alaşehir district of Manisa during the population exchange between Turkey and Greece in 1923. Nea Filadelfeia, a settlement founded by families who had migrated from Alaşehir, Manisa, meant New Alaşehir. After his father, Dimitris, lost his business following the 1967 Greek military coup, the Postecoglou family migrated to Australia in 1970, when he was five years old. He grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. At the age of 10, his parents changed his surname to "Postekos", remarking: "It was a fad in those days to shorten your name if you were Greek, so that's what they did." Although Postekos is still his surname legally, he opts for Postecoglou.Playing career
After first joining South Melbourne Hellas as a nine-year-old, Postecoglou rose through the youth ranks to play 193 games from 1984 to 1993 for them in the National Soccer League.As a player, he was involved in their 1984 and 1990–91 titles, the latter as captain in a penalty shootout win over rivals Melbourne Croatia. He was coached by Hungarian Ferenc Puskás, a renowned player whom his father had told him about as a child. According to Postecoglou, Puskás played a 4–3–3 formation rigid full-backs and attacking wingers. Postecoglou built on this strategy in his own coaching; however, his use of attacking full backs in a non-traditional inverted position differs from Puskás.
A knee injury prematurely ended Postecoglou's NSL career at the age of 27. In 2000, he went on to be named as the starting left back in South Melbourne's team of the century as voted by fans and an expert panel.
Postecoglou remained active as a player in the lower tiers of Victorian soccer, making appearances for Western Suburbs SC in the Victorian State League Division One in 1994 and Stonnington City in the Victorian State League Division Four in 1995.
International career
Postecoglou represented Australia at senior level four times between 1986 and 1988. Prior to this, he represented Australia at youth level in 1985.His international debut came on 3 August 1986 during a 1–1 draw against Czechoslovakia. The only other international opponent he ever played against was New Zealand, playing during both legs of the 1988 Trans-Tasman Cup which Australia won 4–1 on aggregate.
Managerial career
Western Suburbs
In 1994, Postecoglou took charge of Western Suburbs SC in the Victorian State League Division One.South Melbourne
Following his retirement, Postecoglou took up the role of an assistant coach at South Melbourne under coaches Jim Pyrgolios and Frank Arok. He gained the head coaching position in 1996, following the firing of Arok. He took charge of South Melbourne's final three matches of the 1995–96 National Soccer League season before being made permanent coach in June 1996.Postecoglou led South 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 South's 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. 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.
Young Socceroos
Following his domestic coaching success, Postecoglou became coach of Australia's youth sides in May 2000. During his tenure, he played a role in identifying and developing Australian players. Postecoglou was involved in an on-air argument with football pundit Craig Foster on the television show The World Game. He was replaced as coach in February 2007 after Australia failed to qualify for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. After his departure as coach of the Australian youth teams, Postecoglou worked as a football pundit for Fox Sports and as an elite consultant to Football Federation Victoria.Feeling that his much-publicised argument with Foster had made him unemployable, Postecoglou coached Panachaiki in the Greek third division, and Whittlesea Zebras back in Melbourne, while running coaching clinics in the city.
Brisbane Roar
On 16 October 2009, Postecoglou was signed as the new Brisbane Roar coach, replacing Frank Farina. Postecoglou started rebuilding the team by releasing Liam Reddy, Craig Moore, Bob Malcolm and Charlie Miller. Tommy Oar, Michael Zullo and Adam Sarota were bought by Dutch club Utrecht, and striker Sergio van Dijk went to Adelaide United. Postecoglou, who asked to be judged a year from the time he took over, proved the critics wrong by winning and playing an entertaining brand of football.The 4–0 win against Adelaide United in round 13 was highly praised in the media as some of the best football the A-League has ever seen. Postecoglou led the Roar to the Premiership and Championship in the 2010–11 season, winning the Grand Final 4–2 on penalties against the Central Coast Mariners in front of 52,168 people at Lang Park. The Roar only lost one game all season and went on a 36-game unbeaten run, which broke the previous Australian football record. On 18 March 2011, he signed a two-year extension with the club until the 2013–14 season.
In the 2011–12 season, Brisbane Roar became the first team to win back-to-back A-League championships and Postecoglou became the most successful Australian domestic football coach, with four national titles.
On 24 April 2012, Postecoglou announced his resignation as head coach of Brisbane Roar. Postecoglou left the Roar after two-and-a-half years, during which he led the club to back-to-back A-League championships, a premiership and consecutive qualification for the AFC Champions League.
Melbourne Victory
On 26 April 2012, it was announced that Postecoglou had signed a three-year contract with A-League club Melbourne Victory as head coach. His first game in charge of the club was the Round 1 clash against crosstown rivals Melbourne Heart, an encounter which the Melbourne Victory lost 2–1. His first win came against Adelaide United in Round 4, with the Victory prevailing 2–1. The following year, Melbourne Victory made the A-League Preliminary Final after beating Perth Glory in an Elimination Final 2–1 at Docklands Stadium. Melbourne Victory then played in the Preliminary Final against Central Coast Mariners and lost 2–0.Australia national team
Postecoglou was appointed head coach of the Australia national team on 23 October 2013 on a five-year contract, replacing German Holger Osieck. Postecoglou was tasked with regenerating the Australian national team, which was deemed to have been too reliant on members of their Golden Generation of 2006, subsequently leading to a stagnation of results that culminated in successive 6–0 defeats to Brazil and France. 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.For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Australia were drawn in Group B alongside holders Spain, 2010 runners-up the Netherlands and Chile. The team lost to Chile 3–1 and the Netherlands 3–2 to be eliminated from Group B, and concluded with a 3–0 loss to also-eliminated Spain. Australia's competitive performances in a difficult group led to belief that a new Golden Generation was about to begin.
Postecoglou coached Australia in 2015 AFC Asian Cup, where they beat Kuwait and Oman, but lost to South Korea in the group stage. They then beat China 2–0 in the quarter-final and the United Arab Emirates 2–0 in the semi-final. Australia beat South Korea 2–1 after extra time to win in the final for its first AFC Asian Cup.
Two weeks after Australia qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, on 22 November 2017, Postecoglou announced his resignation as Socceroos coach.
Yokohama F. Marinos
On 19 December 2017, Yokohama F. Marinos announced they had appointed Postecoglou as head coach with his tenure set to begin after the 2017 Japanese Emperor's Cup. Postecoglou's first domestic game as coach of Yokohama ended with a 1–1 draw against Cerezo Osaka at Yanmar Stadium, Osaka. After an initial difficult start to the season, which saw Yokohama F. Marinos facing potential relegation, Postecoglou guided the club to the final of the J-League Cup, and a 12th-place finish in the league.After receiving interest from the Greece national 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.