It’s been a busy social week for Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou. The coach revisited his roots when he was special guest at his former club South Melbourne FC’s jersey night held at the newly constructed Lakeside social club.
The event followed a gala dinner in Sydney on Wednesday night when one of the talking points was Ange’s future career as a coach. During a public forum at the Australian Football Institute event hosted by football media personality Les Murray, Postecoglou indicated that after the World Cup in 2018 it would be time to move on from his position as Socceroos boss.
The end of the Russia 2018 World Cup will mark the end of Postecoglou’s five-year contract as coach of the Socceroos, an appointment he took up in 2013 replacing then-coach Holger Osieck.
Since then, the 51-year-old has coached the Socceroos in 36 games for 17 wins, 12 losses, and seven draws, with the highlight being the 2015 AFC Asian Cup win in Australia. Eight of those losses came in 2014 and included matches to higher-ranked opponents in preparation for and during the 2014 World Cup finals.
This year the Socceroos will play another seven matches (at least) all bar one of which are in competition. If the team makes it to the World Cup finals next year and through to the knockout stages, Postecoglou will approach the 50-game milestone as a Socceroos coach, and presumably Postecoglous’ stocks as a coach would soar.
He has commented in the past that when he completes his tenure as the Socceroos boss he would like to return to club coaching abroad. Postecoglou has previously coached at club level in Greece in 2008 with Panachaiki, but would most likely receive offers from bigger clubs if the Socceroos perform well over the next 15 months.