Real inspiration!
ANGE ATTRIBUTES HIS FEARLESSNESS AND ATTACKING PHILOSOPHY TO HIS DAYS PLAYING FOR PUSKAS IN OZ
IT’S 61 years since Ferenc Puskas and his Real Madrid side enraptured Hampden by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt and almost 15 years since he shuffled off this mortal coil.
If the Hungarian’s brilliance and attacking philosophy made an indelible mark on the 127,000 Scots in attendance at the 1960 European Cup final, it would have a similar impact on Ange Postecoglou when their paths crossed in Australia nearly 30 years later.
In 1989, the now Celtic manager was 24 years old. Already captain of South Melbourne Hellas, his views on how football should be played were strong yet evolving.
The arrival of Puskas as the club’s manager that summer proved to be an education like no other.
Over three years, Puskas would lead the club to four major honours, including a storied victory over Melbourne Croatia in 1991 in the NSL Grand Final. But his influence on Postecoglou was to prove life-affirming.
Not only did he inspire him to move into management once the legs had gone, he emboldened him to succeed with the kind of panache that had thrilled the Hampden crowd in 1960.
‘I was only a young player but I ended up being captain of the club,’ Postecoglou explained.
‘When Puskas came he didn’t speak a lot of English but his Greek was okay, so he’d go through me a lot of the time as an intermediary with a lot of the boys.
‘I’d often pick him up from his house and drive him to the ground. I spent a lot of time chatting about football with him.
‘We were a young group but he instilled a fearlessness in us. We weren’t afraid to lose or make mistakes. He just wanted us to love the game, enjoy the game, and that is something I’ve taken into my football.
‘People talk a lot about me
being an attacking coach and I think that was where the seed was sown. He was much more open than the previous coaches who were so regimented and structured.
‘He was so humble that you quickly forgot that he was once one of the world’s best players. The biggest lessons I learned in life were from those days.’
That their paths should have crossed at all is something of a quirk of a curiosity. For all he will always be mentioned in any conversation about the greatest all-time players, Puskas was nothing special as a manager.
After retiring from playing in 1966, he took managerial jobs in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
With the exception of his time in charge at Panathinaikos, where he won the championship and took them to the final of the
European Cup in 1971, it was largely devoid of success.
In a football context, Australia in the late 1980s was unrecognisable from the country it is now.
Miles behind Aussie Rules, cricket and both rugby codes in terms of popularity, the game was still semi-professional. An appearance at the 1974 World Cup had next to no impact. It all seemed beneath men with the stature of Puskas.
Arriving in Australia after three years with Cerro Porteno in Paraguay, the then 61-year-old set to work as a youth coach at Parkmore SC, an emerging side in southeast Melbourne.
Parkmore’s financial backers were Hungarian and wanted Puskas to turn the city’s most talented youths into superstars. Through his many European connections, they would then be moved on at a handsome profit. So went the theory, at least.
But the plan turned to dust one day when Puskas fell out with the owner George Biritz.
Puskas would have returned to Europe had it not been for two Parkmore players who were the sons of two former South Melbourne directors.
Word got back, discussions were had and bags were duly unpacked. And so the man known as the Galloping Major came into Postecoglou’s life.
A student of the game who had devoured every last detail in the football magazines he collected, Postecoglou knew he was in the presence of greatness.
‘It wasn’t just about what he brought as a coach,’ the now Celtic boss told ESPN. ‘It was his whole philosophy to life and, by extension, to football.
‘He was someone that had great success but also experienced great hardship. Football to him was all about the joy of the game. It was about scoring goals and loving football.’
For the players under his wing, life was to be a joy.
‘His motto was if you concede two goals, we’ve got to score three,’ ex-player Peter Tsolakis explained. Sound familiar?
Puskas’ legacy at the club would have been considerable without tangible success but in 1991 he led the club to victory in the NSL Grand Final.
It wasn’t just the fact that they beat bitter rivals Melbourne Croatia that made it a victory for the ages. His side trailed in the 88th minute before Joe Palatsides equalised. They went on to win a penalty shoot-out that looked like a lost cause.
A slump in form the following year ensured it would be his last with the club but there was no joy when it was over.
‘There was sadness there for what he’d done, to be that humble was incredible,’ said former Australia international Paul Wade.
It says much about the impression Puskas made on a nation not short of its own sporting heroes that a statue of him now stands at what was once Olympic Park — the venue for that 1991 triumph.
Many of his former players have carried his torch since — but none more so than the man who’ll hope to take Celtic back to the scene of Puskas’ most famous game this season.
‘His name gave us enormous credibility,’ said Postecoglou. ‘We knew there was something special about him and that made the rest of us feel good. The right person can have that impact.’