Ange and the Boss: the Australian title and ties that bind Postecoglou and Puskás

There is emotional and cultural heft to the story revealed in a film about the Hungarian football great’s time as coach of South Melbourne Hellas

Based on a blur of childhood memory that hardly equals sociology, Australia in the 1980s and 90s was a place obsessed with celebrity. A small population at the far end of the world, a gap unbridged by cheap flights and eternal internet: when famous people came to visit, it was a huge deal.

When Australians got involved in major events overseas, even bigger. There were years when Nicole Kidman just showing up at the Oscars felt like a national event. So it’s a hell of a story that one of the world’s greatest footballers coached a local soccer team in 1991, and hardly anybody noticed.

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