It’s not so much that Ange is the first Australian manager to win a European competition, it’s that he’s the first manager from outside of Europe and Argentina in the 70 years of European club football to win a European competition.

So yes, think about that – The first Australian manager, the first manager from the AFC/Asia, the first Spurs manager since Keith Burkinshaw in 1984 to win a European competition, and until Wednesday night, Argentina WAS the only non-European country to produce a European competition winning manager, namely 3 great managers:

Luis Carniglia managed Real Madrid’s legendary team of the 1950s, winning the European Cup in 1958 and 1959 (They won the first 5 European Cup Finals between 1956 and 1960), also winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (The precursor to the UEFA Cup/Europea League) with AS Roma in 1961.

Another interesting story about Carniglia is that he didn’t play Ferenc Puskás in the 1959 Final against Reims in Stuttgart (Madrid won 2-0), which led to his dismissal by president Santiagio Bernabeu… of course, the symmetry is that decades later, Puskás managed Postecoglou at South Melbourne FC in the glory days of the NSL.

The legend Helenio Herrera, the first true superstar manager of Italian football, managed Inter Milan to consecutive European Cups in 1964 & 1965 (Grande Inter), also winning the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup with Barcelona in 1960.

And more recently, Diego Simeone has won 2 Europa League titles (Plus 2 UEFA Super Cups) with Athletico Madrid in 2012 and 2018, also reaching 2 UEFA Champions League Finals in 2014 and 2016.

So yes, Australia is now a European footballing powerhouse, and the line “I always win things in my second year” is just about the quote of the year.