Three passionate Greek Aussie football fans have turned Melbourne into “ANGE TOWN” with giant posters of Ange Postecoglou put up in the city’s iconic Hosier Lane.
Visitors of the lane can now follow a visual narrative that connects Postecoglou’s legacy to his hometown of Melbourne.
The six larger than life depictions showcase the various stages and achievements in the career of the Greek-Australian football manager, culminating in his recent appointment as the head coach of Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League.
Ange migrated from Greece as a young boy and grew up in Prahran where a deep football culture and Greek history reside.
His significance to institutions like South Melbourne (Hellas) FC and Melbourne’s Greek community cannot be understated and he remains an inspiration for artistic interpretation, football mythology and a source of passion amongst fans.
The project was conceived by Dean Drossos, Peter Giasoumi and Dean Kotsianis, with the latter two behind Yitonia, a bespoke network and project facilitator.
Yitonia is exporting the Greek-Australian and Melbourne based narrative abroad, while they package and celebrate Ange’s story in a local way.
Drossos spoke to Neos Kosmos about how the entire project came about.
“I’ve known of Ange for the longest time – my dad used to be in the committee at South Melbourne, worked with the club back in the 90s when Ange was a player and a coach,” he said.
“Then throughout the years, we’ve just kind of been watching his story and as soon as he went to Tottenham, Dean (Kotsianis) and myself kind of knew that we had to put up something up of Ange, as kind of like a mural and way of showing our appreciation of what he’s managed to accomplish over his like 20 years as a manager.”
Drossos had this idea but he needed help, so he reached out to his old friend Kotsianis, having been familiar with his other work like the Footscray mural.
“I knew that I could go to him and ask him for support there with Yitonia.”
“So pretty much we worked together on it, and it was maybe around a two-month process of just going back and forth with designs and different ideas.
“I created a lot of the designs and Yitonia helped make it happen through like physically being able to support me when putting it up and as well as like funding it, which was great.”
Once the larger-than-life depictions went up, curious onlookers flocked in to take photos and engage with the team to learn more about not only Ange’s story, but theirs too.
Drossos and Yitonia hope that Melbourne can start to remember its once fervent passion for the sport and want to inspire others to tell artistic football stories, be it current or past – and on a personal note, it would be a dream come true for Drossos if Ange himself sees it.