Celtic’s connection to Australia pre-dates Ange Postecoglou.
In fact, you need to wind the clock back to before the turn of the century (God that makes me feel old) to locate the first connection between the club and the land down under.
And as the Socceroo’s named their Team of the Century today, there was one huge Celtic exclusion and a demotion for Ange Postecoglou.
Named in the squad was former Celtic striker Mark Viduka with 43 caps and 11 goals.
Viduka signed for the Hoops back in 1998 and made 48 appearances scoring 35 goals.
He famously refused to appear for the second half in Celtic’s 3-1 home loss to Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup.
A result that eventually cost John Barnes his job and he was sold to Leeds United the following summer.
Also named is current Celtic midfielder Aaron Mooy with 52 caps. Let’s hope he starts showing glimpses of the player that earned him this accolade.
Surprisingly, there was no place for former Celtic striker Scott McDonald or big Tom Rogic.
McDonald earned 21 caps for his country but never managed to hit the back of the net.
The massive miss for me is Tom Rogic.
With 53 caps for his country and 11 goals, he seems to have been relegated to the bench.
Another surprising note to take is Ange Postecoglou’s demotion to the coaching squad. Guss Hiddink was named manager which, I suppose, is valid as he did manage to get them out of the group stage of the 2006 World Cup when they were in a difficult group with Japan, Brazil and Croatia.
But then Postecoglou did win the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 giving the Aussies their first major piece of silverware.