A few hours ago Panathinaikos say goodbye to weapons, losing to him Olympic at G. Karaiskakis, the other team, dressed in green and with a (four-leaf) clover on their chest, won another championship in their country. The fact that Celtic were crowned Scottish champions for the 11th time in the last years, is not news, and it would not be of particular interest to us if Angelos Postekoglou, the only Greek coach who celebrated the title with a team category A for several years, was not on their bench!

The last two Greek managers to win the Super League 1 title were Takis Lemonis in 2017 and Nikos Nioplias in 2013, with the difference that the former simply took it upon himself to finish the job by taking over the reins of Olympiacos at the end of March. , shortly before the championship, while the latter replaced Henk Ten Keith halfway through, at a time when (then) Panathinaikos with several shareholders seemed to have briefly lost their way and found it again.

All these years, the only Greek coach who led the class A team from the beginning of the season and made it the champion at the end was Yorgos Donis. He won the title with APOEL in Cyprus in 2013-14 and also had success in Saudi Arabia with Al Hilal but not in the league. In general, Greek football coaches don’t have that special movement that Greek basketball coaches have, so the case of Angelos Postekoglou is particularly interesting.

This is certainly not a native coach of Greek football, and the truth is that he does not have fond memories of his (traumatic) few months in his homeland, when in March 2008 he took over Panachaiki and was removed (by the new owner of her) in December of that year, before he could show anything. But he has not only a Greek origin, but also a Greek consciousness: he feels more like a Greek than an Australian, although he has lived there almost all his life.

Tough Celtic Days

His success seems like a relatively simple matter when you consider that Celtic are a team that has absolutely dominated the Scottish league in recent years. In fact, when she took office two years ago, her path was paved with thorns, not roses, despite monopolizing the headlines as archrivals Rangers were brought to their knees by financial troubles.

At the time, Celtic were going through a very difficult time. He survived two painful exits from the Scottish Cup (by Rangers) and the League Cup (by Ross County), spent 100 days without a manager and quite a long time without a manager – the fans were furious and the future looked bleak.

The agreement with Postecoglou again brought calm and steered the boat into calm waters. Although he had never worked for Ostrov before, the fans accepted him because they knew him for his success with the Australian national team, which he twice (2014 in Brazil, 2018 in Russia) led to the final stage of the World Cup. Cup and once in winning the Asian Cup in 2015.

The acquittal came quickly, with fellow Greek ‘ally’ Giorgos Jakoumakis developing under him to become the league’s leading scorer. Postekoglou has won the title since his first year in Scotland and won it for the second time in a row last Sunday after Celtic beat Hearts 2-0. Coincidentally, with a win against the same team and the same score last August (Yakumakis was also scoring then), the Celtics went 36 straight games unbeaten, equaling the record he set in Australia as manager of the Brisbane Roar. “. the longest in all sports on this distant continent! He took two championships with her (he had two more with Greece Melbourne), playing such attractive football that his team was called … Roarselona!

Before traveling to Scotland in June 2021, Angelos Postekoglou found a breather at AEK. Vladan Milojevic finally received the anointing, but did not even have time to paint it black, as the next day an offer came from the team from Glasgow, as he says: “AEK was an opportunity for me, almost at the same time as” Celtic. . That was the moment when the doors were opening, because at this time the teams are looking for a coach, and we became very close. In the end they went the other way, and just a day later I got a call from Peter Lowell, the then chief executive of Celtic. Then I also spoke to the owner and we agreed on 24 hours.”

As is often the case with any person who had to leave their native places in search of a better future in a distant land, the story of Angelos Postekoglou is full of difficulties and emotions. Born in 1965 in New Philadelphia, he left Greece with his family at the age of 5 in 1970 for Australia, embroiled in an adventure with an uncertain future.

“I never considered football as a job”

Thanks to what he said in an earlier interview with SKY SPORTS and the BBC’s Age of Ange documentary about “a boy from Greece who became a Celtic star,” his story became known around the world:

“I was five years old when we boarded a boat for a month and went to Australia. I don’t have very good memories of it. Then there was a turmoil in Greece, and my father decided that we should move abroad. It’s about going half the world to a place where we literally didn’t know anyone, didn’t know the language, had no guarantees of housing, any work. We only had a ticket.

I have a feeling that my father believed that he would go to another country, settle down and be able to return with his family to live in Greece. But there was an endless struggle for success. My parents worked day and night, we shared a house with another family for many years to make ends meet.

“I never saw football as a job to make a living. It has always meant more to me.”

People misinterpret the history of immigration. I often hear people say that they immigrate to another country in search of a better life. This is not an immigrant story. They travel to another country to provide opportunities for the next generation. My mom and dad didn’t have a better life in Australia. No matter how hard it was in Greece, if they had stayed where all their relatives and friends were, their life would have been better. They left it all behind because they wanted to give their children a chance. This is a great gift for someone. They sacrifice their happiness and much of their well-being for the sake of their children. This is a lesson that has never been lost on me. Everything I do, I do in memory of my parents.

My father is no longer alive, but wherever he is, I hope that all the sacrifices he made were worth it. I never saw football as a job to make a living. It has always meant more to me. Football has the ability to unite and create more than a spectacle. The club I started at, South Melbourne Hellas, wasn’t just a football club. It was a beacon for Greek immigrants who came here on weekends to feel that they were close to Greece.”

The son of Dimitris and Voula Postekoglou saw his parents change his name to Anji Postekos to make it easier for foreigners who were embarrassed by his long-winded surname to help him adapt more easily to his new homeland. When he grew up, he replaced him again with Angelos Postecoglu, because his reputation was ahead of him – he needed no introduction. He went all the way as a football player to the Australian national team, but a serious injury forced him to retire at the age of 27 and devote himself to coaching, as Australia’s borders were too small to accommodate him.

“The flame that my father lit is still there in my head, I can still hear his voice. I must continue to honor his sacrifices. I understand what honest work is, I understand what it means to give, I understand what it means to be in a privileged position like the one I have at a big club like Celtic, these are the words of a completely successful manager, five years old – the old kid who, in his BBC dedication, is shown looking at the camera with a sign with the number 24, in the first minutes when he set foot as a young immigrant in the expanses of Australia …