The 2020s have been anything but ordinary for Michael Valkanis, having embarked on an unbelievable odyssey that includes working in Israel at the time of the October 7 attacks, joining Ajax, reigniting the Greek national team, and now striving to do the same with Brisbane Roar.
Valkanis’ resume chronicles numerous tales that make up a coaching career many would be proud to recall, with the Greek Australian doing exactly that as he reflected to Neos Kosmos on the insane journey the 2020s having taken him on so far.
Transforming Greece’s national team
“When I’m able to reflect on it now, the situation we walked into was probably one of the lowest times of the Greek national team.”
That was Valkanis’ frank assessment of the climate surrounding the Greek team when he joined in 2019 as John Van’t Schip’s assistant, linking up with the Dutchman again after previously working together at Melbourne City and PEC Zwolle.
The “Ethniki” was midway through the Euro 2020 qualifiers when the pair joined, a campaign in which they failed to qualify for the tournament but marked the beginning of a revamp.
“There were a lot of problems. A lot of in-fighting between players, in-fighting within the Hellenic Football Federation,” Valkanis said.
“What we did, and many will remember in Greece for what we did because they talk about it even now, is we changed the whole landscape.”
The Greek Australian praised van’t Schip for leading the charge in transforming the team by making big selection calls, notably omitting players like Kostas Manolas, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Vasilis Torosidis and handing out chances to the youth.
“Credit to John (van’t Schip), he took bold decisions in changing it and bringing in a lot of younger players in.”
He remarked that the decision to select players like Vangelis Pavlidis and Christos Tzolis, now regulars in the national side, were unpopular with media at the time for either being too inexperienced or not playing in a high-profile league.
“That was the start of the revolution in the Greek national team and the Hellenic Football Federation,” Valkanis said.
He stated that the football world felt the shift to trusting the emerging youth, even remarking how his agent asked him to watch Konstantinos Karetsas at Genk when the now 18-year-old was only 12 to 13.
Valkanis admitted that, though they failed to qualify for any tournament, he feels they did succeed as they found a way to shift the culture and landscape of the team.
“We essentially were changing the whole makeup of that team. It wasn’t easy, but it worked…It was really good football and people got excited and they knew and they had trusted in that.”
He expressed his belief that his successors built on the work he started with Van’t Schip before they finished up in 2021.
“I see the work continued now with Ivan Jovanovic and I hope he sticks with these younger guys because they are the next generation that can take the national team to the World Cup and the Euros.”
He cited the togetherness, game-day rituals, and competing against teams like Spain and Italy as experiences he still cherishes from his time with Greece.
“It’s always about the memories you create in the sport, and I was really privileged and honoured to have been to be able to say now as part of that. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Coaching in Israel at time of October 7 attacks
Valkanis was one of many people directly caught in the chaos of the attacks that occurred in Israel on 7 October 2023.
He was coaching Hapoel Tel Aviv at the time and in the middle of a project that was gathering steam.
“I was enjoying myself living in Tel Aviv. coaching one of the biggest clubs in the country, building it around a young team, and really good times.”
Valkanis was five rounds into the season with Hapoel when everything changed.
“When the attacks happened, I had to leave,” he said.
The coach stated the club ensured all foreigners got out of the country, with him going to Greece where he was offered almost immediately the job at Atromitos.
“Straight away, I said ‘No, I’m the coach at Hapoel, and I’m going to remain’.”
“What people don’t realise is these boys I’d worked with for four months, they were all like my sons. And I was leaving them in a place that was in a war situation.”
He recalled that he was in daily communication with the club and players, operating under the perspective the conflict could be resolved within a few weeks.
Then, by complete coincidence, things took another turn when he unexpectedly ran into van’t Schip.
“Funnily enough, I’m walking down Poseidonos Avenue along Voula Beach and John drives, and he turns and does a U-turn,” Valkanis said.
“He goes ‘Michael, I was supposed to call you today’. I asked about what and he said ‘Ajax, I’m going to Ajax. I need you to come’.”
Valkanis explained he told him he was still at Hapoel to which van’t Schip replied ‘Well, the war’s not going to finish’, and later that night the Israeli side’s CEO and owner called the Greek-Australian to admit things were not looking good in Israel.
It was in that conversation Valkanis said he had been offered an assistant coach at Ajax.
“I was really enjoying myself at Hapoel. I will always say the people were fantastic, supporters were fantastic. It’s a club I support even till today,” he said.
“They said to me ‘Go, we’d love you to go there. We will let you go, no problem’.”
All the paperwork was sorted that night, and he was on his way to Ajax.
Taking over an Ajax side in crisis
Valkanis admitted that joining Ajax felt like a full-circle moment as he returned to the club a decade after first visiting it as part of a European coaching trip in 2012 where he also went to FC Barcelona, Espanyol and FC Twente.
“I left Ajax and thought, ‘Geez, imagine coaching. Imagine being a coach at this place’. And ten years later, there I am, working as assistant coach.”
While he was immensely excited, he and van’t Schip were joining the club at arguably one of its lowest points, similar to what they experienced with Greece.
“We took over at a very difficult situation where the team was last,” Valkanis said, recalling he first learned that information through his son Dimitri.
Nevertheless, the job held great significance, not just for Valkanis but van’t Schip as well.
“It was huge for John at the time. His wife had just passed away and he was also doing it for her because she was a huge Ajax fan,” Valkanis said, noting that his chance meeting with van’t Schip in Greece only happened because the Dutchman and his kids were visiting some of their family’s favourite spots in the country.
Valkanis also noted van’t Schip’s own Ajax connection forged from his playing days (during which he was coached by Johann Cruyff) and coaching the youth team.
“It was an amazing, amazing place to work in. It had some internal problems, and they didn’t quite go away, but it was a huge experience for me,” Valkanis said.
“We worked very hard to turn it around, and we turned it around, all right…In the end we finished fifth and made Europe, which was a great result based on where they were when we started.”
He noted that the one thing he loved above everything else was working at the club’s famous training centre, the Sportpark De Toekomst.
“Turning up, and you know when you sit at your office and you’ve got Van Gaal, you’ve got Cruyff, you’ve got Rinus Michels on the wall, it makes you very proud that you’ve gotten to coach in a place like this.”
The Brisbane Roar Project
After seven years working in Europe, Valkanis found himself unexpectedly swayed into returning to Australia, a move he admitted did not feel in the cards.
“I was in Greece at the time when Brisbane first called me and I’d just come back from leaving from Turkey, from Adana Demirspor.”
The first call came in January 2025 through an agent and ex-teammate of Valkanis’, Shane Smeltz, and it was followed up by another call a month later when Smeltz said Brisbane Roar’s CEO and COO (Kaz Patafta and Zac Anderson) wanted to talk to him.
Valkanis said their first discussion left him impressed with how aligned they all were with the direction they had in mind for the club, and one month later he was told Patafta wanted to meet him in London.
“We had a five-to-six-hour meeting and it’s probably one of the best meetings I’ve had with a leader,” Valkanis said, stating the level of transparency was a big factor in him accepting the job.
“After the meeting, I had a good feeling that it was a good decision to take,” he said.
He stated that the prospect of leading Brisbane Roar back to the successes of 15 years ago really excited him, though stressed they knew it would not happen overnight.
“If you took me back to that London conversation with Kaz and we look at it now, we know we’re ahead of time…a lot of things that we said we’re going to do, we’ve ticked off already.”
He emphasised a big part of their plan was getting bigger home crowds, and their average home attendance so far has been higher than it has been in numerous seasons.
“We’ve let people down with recent results, but we’re still getting better crowds than last season,” Valkanis said.
“People can see the players are playing for the supporters and are proud of what they’re giving. There’s going to be games that you lose, but as long as you make them proud with your effort, they’re going to still support you.”
