Ange Postecoglou has opened up on what motivated him to move to Saudi Arabia and coach football icon Cristiano Ronaldo, after the Australian manager marked his first month in charge of Al-Nassr with another award.
And the 61-year old has lifted the lid on the brutal way ex-Tottenham Hotspur chaiman Daniel Levy sacked him just days after bringing the club its first silverware in 17 years in the Europa League.
Postecoglou has made a stunning start to his time with the Saudi powerhouse, winning all five of his competitive matches across the Pro League and King’s Cup.
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Speaking to popular Fox Sports AFL and cricket commentator Mark Howard on The Howie Gamespodcast, the 61-year old, who had seen stints at Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest end in acrimonious circumstances in the last 18 months, said the chance to manage the final years of Ronaldo’s celebrated career was too tempting to pass up.
“The fact I’m going to share a dressing room with one of the greats, I make no sort of secrets about it – it was one of the enticements of the job,” he said.
“When I reflect on my career, what stands out for me is that I’ve been unbelievably blessed in being part of other people’s journeys.
“With the Socceroos, I worked with arguably our greatest ever player in Timmy Cahill, so I’m a small part of his story.
“Sonny (South Korea and former Spurs star Son Heung-min), the greatest ever Korean player, I’m a small part of his story.
“So, there’s no doubt, Cristiano Ronaldo’s here, you kind of go ‘I can become a small part of his story as well’.
Cristiano Ronaldo. (Photo by Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“And not from a selfish point of view, but for my own kind of life’s journey, of everything I wanted to do since I was a kid … that was part of the attraction.
“Not that they’ll tell my story alongside it, but I can tell that story, and that was a part of it as well.”
The interview was conducted in the early stages of Postecoglou’s time at Al-Nassr, before his first competitive game at the helm and after Ronaldo bowed out of international football at the World Cup.
The pair haven’t always seen eye to eye in his first months at the helm, with Postecoglou first leaving him out of his first two games before benching him at half time of a clash with Al-Ettifaq, which Al-Nassr went on to win 3-2 despite being 2-0 down at the time.
He revealed he had had “half a dozen” alternative job offers after being brutally sacked as Nottingham Forest manager in October last year after just 39 days in charge.
Postecoglou’s winning start has seen him named the Saudi Pro League’s manager of the month, in identical fashion to his spectacular start at Spurs in 2023.
He became the first ever manager to win the gong in his first two months at the helm after steering Spurs to a table-topping six wins and two draws from his first eight games, before fading late in the 2023/24 season to finish fifth.
The Australian was then axed after a disastrous 2024/25 Premier League season, mere weeks after leading the club to its first silverware in decades with a Europa League triumph.
Ange Postecoglou. (Photo by Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Postecoglou revealed the brutal way ex-Spurs boss Daniel Levy summoned him back from a holiday in Greece shortly after their Europa League triumph to tell him his time was up.
“I knew it was coming,” he said.
“Literally the day after (a parade celebrating Spurs’ Europa League win), I went to Greece with my family. I wanted to get away from it all.
“And from there it was just waiting for the phone call, I knew it was going to happen.
“My agent said “Look, Daniel Levy wants you to come back and have a meeting, he wants to have a chat to you”.
“I said look, I’ll get on a flight. I came back and he said “Daniel wants to see you”. I said “Look, I don’t really want to see him”.
“I said “What’s he going to say to me. I know what he’s delivering”.
Ange Postecoglou shake hands with ex-Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy following Spurs’ Europa League final win over Manchester United. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“If it’s good news, I would have just got on with my holiday. Just finish it off and we’re done. And that’s how it ended.
“But it wasn’t a shock.”
Postecoglou added that it was “disappointing” not to continue on, saying Spurs players, despite their poor 17th placing in the Premier League, were “all in” on his style.
“ I was disappointed, but at the same time, I felt like you know what, we had a moment here that is priceless (the Europa League) and I’m not going to let it tarnish it,” he said.
The veteran maanger also revealed his decision to make the Europa League his focus over the Premier League, which earned Spurs silverware for the first time in nearly 17 years but resulted in a relegation near-miss, was frowned upon within the club, but he has no regrets.
“Our league form wasn’t great. I make no apologies for that. I went all in on winning the Europa because I just felt it was too important for the football club,” he said.
“It wasn’t just about winning a trophy, which obviously was the most important thing – but it gets you into the Champions League, which means Champions League money.
“That made a lot of people uncomfortable outside the club, certainly made people uncomfortable inside the club. I don’t think they agreed with that strategy and they made it clear they didn’t agree.
“Unless they removed me, that was going to be the strategy, because I just felt it was the best way forward.
“I kind of knew even when we won it. I told my wife this’ll be the last game.
“I was convinced they were going to get rid of me now.”
Ange Postecoglou with the UEFA Europa League trophy. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
He said he resisted the temptation to “have a crack” at club powerbrokers, both immediately after the triumph and at the parade held to celebrate their return to Tottenham.
“That night we had at Bilbao, they were all in that room,” Postecoglou said.
“There was a little part of me to go “I should really just go up and have a crack at them now”. I felt like “You’re enjoying this, but I know what you’re going to do”.
“I had such a great day in the parade, and even my speech that day, part of me wanted to be self-serving and just shove it up a few people who I knew were enjoying the day, but I knew what they were going to do.
“But I kind of said no, it’s not right for me to spoil the people’s day.”
Ange Postecoglou waves to the fans during the Tottenham Hotspur Europa League trophy parade. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Following the twin Premier League stints at Spurs and Forest, Postecoglou said the move to a lower-profile league was never an issue.
“People say “it’s not in Europe, it’s not a higher profile league”, but I’ve always railed against people who are snobbish about certain leagues and everything,“ he said.
“I wasn’t going to turn around and say “that’s a backwards step for me”. I never see things that way.
“I think, is there an opportunity there? Can I make an impact? Would I be excited about the prospect of doing it?
“It ticked those boxes for me, because it’s a league that’s obviously invested a lot of money, there’s some top managers here, some top players here. The chance to be a part of that was significant.”
He added that accepting the Forest job so soon after his Spurs heartbreak had been an unwise move – that even his wife warned him against.
“Everyone around me, including my wife, said don’t do it,” Postecoglou admitted.
“I ignored all of them and I said “No, I know the challenge and I love the challenge”.
Ange Postecoglou lasted just 39 days at Nottingham Forest before being sacked. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“I thought it was a club where I could make an impact – but you know when you don’t fit and I felt that from the first day.
“It was quite obvious that this was not the opportunity.
“It was probably the worst three hours of my professional life when I got sacked. I paid a penance for that decision.”
Despite the wolves circling after a poor start to his Forest tenure, Postecoglou revealed the axe falling immediately after a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea took him by surprise.
I literally walked in after the game, went to the coaches’ room, and the sporting directors came in,” he said.
“I wasn’t even thinking they were going to sack me, I was thinking about the game – we weren’t playing too badly, we just needed a goal.
“(I) get sacked in that room, and I was like, “Alright, I’m out of here”.
“I walk out the door and literally all the media are there. They’ve already been informed.”
Postecoglou also told Howard the long-standing comparisons to iconic television football coach Ted Lasso irritates him, and that he had never watched the award-winning Apple TV program.
He said he felt the comparison to the American coach who switched from gridiron to coaching AFC Richmond in a fictional Premier League was demeaning.
“That guy came from a different code … I’ve come from the same code, do you understand?” he said.
“I know it’s a different country, but football is my game.
“I haven’t come from cricket into football.
“That annoys me. And because it annoys me, I didn’t watch it (the series).”
Despite the undefeated four-win start, Al-Nassr sit second on the Pro League table on goal difference to rivals Al-Hilal, who signed Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli on a record $112 million transfer fee.
Their next match, against Al-Ittihad, is on Sunday morning (AEST).