In 2015, Anthony Barry was a lower-league footballer at Accrington Stanley, taking his first steps into coaching with the club’s Under-16 side.
Eleven years later, the Liverpool-born coach sits alongside Thomas Tuchel as England prepare to face Argentina in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final.
Barry, aged just 40, has become one of the most recognisable figures of this tournament through his frank and no-nonsense half-time television interviews during England’s matches.
His coaching CV already spans elite clubs and international teams, with experience at Chelsea, Bayern Munich, and the Portugal and Belgium national squads.
Barry describes himself as the yin to Tuchel’s yang, acknowledging their partnership can “look a bit strange at times” given their differences in height and background.
The England assistant is quick to emphasise that Tuchel is firmly in charge, poking fun at their “little and large” dynamic, with the German standing around eight inches taller.
Barry’s playing career was largely spent in the lower leagues, including featuring for Accrington Stanley when they won the Conference 20 years ago to return to the Football League for the first time in 44 years.
“In shock at the question because, 20 years ago, was I really winning the league for Accrington Stanley?” he told 5 Live Sport, reflecting on that milestone anniversary.
After retiring as a player, Barry moved into coaching as assistant manager at Wigan Athletic before impressing Frank Lampard on the Uefa Pro Licence course and joining Chelsea in the summer of 2020.
When Tuchel replaced the sacked Lampard in January 2021, he retained Barry, and within months the pair had guided Chelsea to Champions League glory.
Barry also developed his international credentials by working under Roberto Martinez with both Belgium and Portugal, giving him the chance to work with global stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin de Bruyne.
Known as an innovative and detail-obsessed coach, Barry specialises in set-pieces and wrote a Pro Licence dissertation in which he analysed 17,000 throw-ins.
“As a young English coach, it’s a gift to be around a manager like him,” Barry said of Tuchel, whom he was reunited with at Bayern Munich in 2023.
“He is, in my opinion, absolutely world class, and right now he is in his best moment, on his best form.”
Barry believes the tight-knit relationship between himself and Tuchel directly drives the squad’s performances, with the two pushing each other and the team in tandem.
“The dynamic between me and him right now is we spend a lot of time together, we push each other, and on the back of me and him pushing each other, we push the team,” he said.
Team spirit has been central to England’s World Cup campaign, with Barry famously telling BBC Sport in April that “the petrol in the car is the team spirit.”
England have produced battling displays throughout the tournament, including coming from behind against DR Congo and claiming a famous victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.
“Anybody that watched the Mexico game would see that the tank is full,” Barry said, adding that the atmosphere around the training ground and hotel had been “just a pleasure to be around.”
Barry and Tuchel have also been meticulous in their preparation, travelling to the United States last summer to scout training bases, facilities, and even to observe how the ball moves on different grass surfaces.
They drew confidence from Chelsea’s Club World Cup victory, which proved to them “that an English team can win” on American soil.
“We’ve been dreaming for 18 months,” Barry said of the vision he and Tuchel have shared since taking charge of England in January 2025, adding that “a dream is just a dream without work.”
Barry and Tuchel have described themselves as “healthily obsessed” with football and with the goal of winning the biggest titles the sport has to offer.
“When we got offered an opportunity in a job like this, we knew it would take absolutely everything from us, but we were both willing to give it,” he said.
With a World Cup final now within reach, the boy from the lower leagues of English football stands on the verge of history.
