Ange Postecoglou has moved to Saudi Arabia. How should we feel about that?

Ange Postecoglou has made a career out of taking the road less travelled; of eschewing the easy, obvious thing in favour of the biggest available challenge.

It’s been just over a year since he was unceremoniously dumped by Tottenham Hotspur after delivering the club’s first trophy in 17 years, and just under a year since his brutal sacking by Nottingham Forest after 39 disastrous days in charge. Popular wisdom was that, to overcome the perception that he was damaged managerial goods, Postecoglou, now 60, would have to leave the Premier League and rebuild his reputation elsewhere: perhaps a big club in Germany or the Netherlands, where he could re-establish his credibility and set up a swift return to England.

Postecoglou’s next chapter began over the weekend, without any of the fanfare that came with the last couple. You may not have even known it happened: in the early hours of Sunday morning (AEST), Al-Nassr opened the new Saudi Professional League (SPL) season with a 3-0 win over Al-Fateh.

Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, who increasingly resembles a wax likeness of Cristiano Ronaldo, sported a notable new haircut as he watched on from the stands, not yet ready to play after his recent wedding, having told Vogue (as you do) that this would “probably” be his final season. It will revolve around his pursuit of the 24 more goals he needs to become the first player in history to score 1000 career goals in official competitions. Postecoglou could be the coach who gets him there. He welcomed Ronaldo to his first team meeting of the season by calling him “Cris” and congratulating him on his nuptials. He is now attached to the perpetual CR7 content machine. This is his new world.

Postecoglou’s two-year contract with the reigning Saudi champions reportedly gives him a salary of almost $20 million per year. Pretty good work, if you can get it; the road less travelled, in this instance, is also paved with riyals.

Is this really where we envisaged him taking his managerial talents? And where are we, exactly: does this mark the beginning of the end of the great Angeball odyssey, or is this just a brief interlude before his triumphant resurgence at the highest level?

Australians, in particular, should be very careful about turning their noses up at Postecoglou’s decision to work in Saudi Arabia, lest we engage in exactly the same sort of Eurocentric snobbery that Ange has always railed against.

You can’t, on one hand, accuse English pundits of underestimating Postecoglou’s previous achievements in Australia, Japan and Scotland because of where they took place, and then on the other hand dismiss Saudi Arabia as some sort of barren footballing wasteland. It’s not: Saudi Arabia was a legitimate football country before the Public Investment Fund decided to start spending big a few years ago, and it still is.

The cynical view is he’s only gone there for the cash, which doesn’t quite square with the relentlessly ambitious Postecoglou we know.