Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou on becoming a coach when he was just 12 – and landing silverware straight away
ANGE Postecoglou has revealed how he first moved into coaching when he was aged just 12 – and led his side to silverware in his very first season.
Postecoglou took over at South Melbourne after a knee injury ended his playing days 25 years ago and has remained in the dugout ever since.
The Greek-Australian has had spells at Panachaiki, Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, Australia and Yokohama F Marinos since then.
The Celtic manager felt that he was always destined to go down that route after taking charge of his school team as a kid and taking them to the state championship.
“I coached my first ever team when I was 12, “ he said. “Looking back, it seems crazy. To me more than anyone else. I don’t know why people were listening to a 12-year-old but there must have been something about me that made them.
“It’s quite bizarre when you think about it, but it’s probably why I have always felt more of a coach. I struggled with my playing career as I just felt that my destiny was to be a manager. That was the space where I always felt most comfortable.
“I would have been annoying as a 12-year-old coach. In fact, I am sure that I would have annoyed a lot of people. But that’s when the coaching career started.
“There hadn’t been a soccer team before and we put a group together. We had a music teacher who said he would take the team, but there wasn’t any coaching or training. He would sit and mark his homework while we all just had a kickabout.
“After the first few sessions, I took control. It sounds bizarre because I was so young. But for some reason, I took control of the whole thing and people listened.
“I didn’t just pretend to be the coach. I picked the team, we had sessions and I told everyone what to do. Looking back, I think I got power hungry! I was a player, coach and captain.”
Postecoglou added: “One of my closest mates, we are still friends to this day, wanted to bring me down a peg or two. He decided that the team would have a vote to see if I should continue as captain. We had the vote and it ended up being unanimous.
“I turned to my mate and said: ‘How could it be unanimous if you called the vote in the first place?’ And he said: ‘I voted for you too. You are the best person for the job but I just wanted to see if other people would vote for you!’
“I was running the show and to this day, I don’t understand why anyone listened to me. I wasn’t anything special! My mates still say: ‘Why were we listening to you back then?’ But we ended up winning the under-12s state championship at South Melbourne’s ground.”
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