The Football Association’s search for an England manager has ended with the appointment of Thomas Tuchel.

On Wednesday – 92 days after Gareth Southgate resigned – the FA announced that Tuchel will take over from interim head coach Lee Carsley on 1 January 2025 on an 18-month contract.

German Tuchel, 51, becomes only the third non-British permanent manager of the England men’s team after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

But how did he end up in charge of England? And who is Anthony Barry, his English assistant?

Tuchel was born in the small town of Krumbach, Bavaria, in 1973.

He began his football journey playing for his local junior grassroots club, TSV Krumbach, where he was coached by his father Rudolf.

Hans Komm, Tuchel’s former PE teacher, told BBC Sport: “Thomas was an outstanding footballer. He played a vital role in the school football team, who were German champions in 1987.”

After showing promise as a defender, Tuchel joined Augsburg’s youth academy but was released at the age of 19.

He joined Stuttgart Kickers in the German second tier, before dropping to the fourth division to play for SSV Ulm.

A knee injury forced Tuchel to retire in 1998 at the age of 25, but he had already laid the foundations of his coaching career.

Tuchel began coaching during his final season at Ulm, as well as studying for a business degree and working in a cocktail bar.

Ralf Rangnick – one of German football’s most influential coaches – gave Tuchel his first coaching opportunity by hiring him as a youth-team coach at VfB Stuttgart in 2000.

Tuchel helped with the development of future Germany internationals Mario Gomez and Holgar Badstuber before returning to Augsburg in a similar role in 2005.

Tuchel took charge of the club’s second team in 2007 after gaining his Uefa pro licence, and joined Bundesliga side Mainz 05 the following year.

After winning the Bundesliga Under-19 title in his first season – the first in the club’s history – Tuchel was promoted to first-team manager and soon began to excel.

“He made such a phenomenal impression on me that he became coach of our senior team,” Mainz managing director Christian Heidel said.

After leading Mainz into the Europa League twice in five seasons, Tuchel stepped down and took a year out of football.

In 2015 he returned with the unenviable task of replacing Jurgen Klopp as Borussia Dortmund head coach, before he joined Paris St-Germain in 2018 and Chelsea in 2021.

In 2023 Tuchel replaced Julian Nagelsmann as Bayern Munich manager, but he left at the end of last season with a year remaining on his contract after they failed to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in 12 years.

Tuchel is widely regarded as one of the best tactical coaches in the world and that is reflected by his impressive CV.

He won his first senior trophy in 2016-17 when Dortmund lifted the DFB Pokal, Germany’s domestic cup competition, before winning Ligue 1 with PSG in 2018-19 and a domestic treble in 2019-20.

While Tuchel was on the losing side in the 2019-20 Champions League final, he went one better the following year as Chelsea beat Manchester City in Porto.

The Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup followed later in 2021, before Tuchel returned to Germany and won the Bundesliga title with Bayern in 2022-23.

While Tuchel has an impressive football brain, some people have found him difficult to work with.

He was sacked by Dortmund, PSG and Chelsea after his relationship with club hierarchy became strained, and the same reason contributed to his walking away from Bayern.

“Thomas was a passionate player who gave his all on the pitch, but sometimes he had few friends among his team-mates because he was exacting and demanding, which didn’t go down well with some of the players,” former Augsburg youth coach Heiner Schumann told BBC Sport.

“He is not an easy person or easy to deal with, but all good coaches are complicated.

“Complicated means they are also tough. They make demands on those around them, their players, from morning to night, and for that reason they are incredible coaches.”

Tuchel worked with Anthony Barry at Chelsea and Bayern.

Barry, 38, spent 13 years as a midfielder in England’s lower tiers, playing for Yeovil Town, Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley among others.

After retiring in 2017, he joined Paul Cook’s coaching staff at Wigan Athletic aged 30.

He joined Frank Lampard’s Chelsea coaching staff in 2020 and started working with Tuchel in 2021 when Lampard was replaced, before linking up with Tuchel again at Bayern in 2023.

“He has the whole package – personality-wise, the love for the game, the love for the job, the passion for it and the quality,” Tuchel said of Barry last year.

“His presentations on the training pitch at Chelsea were of the highest level.”

Barry specialises in set-pieces, having written a dissertation on throw-ins as part of his pro licence course, which he presented to classmates including Lampard and Michael Carrick. At Bayern he was in charge of all dead-ball situations.

Barry worked under Roberto Martinez with Belgium and Portugal at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 European Championship respectively alongside his club duties.