Who is Anthony Barry? Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coach for England

ANTHONY BARRY has been named as Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coach for England – and SunSport can tell you all what we know about him.

England revealed that Tuchel will take control of the senior side from January, 1, 2025 despite signing the contract on Tuesday, October 8.

The 2021 FIFA coach of the year stated: “I am very proud to have been given the honour of leading the England team.

“I have long felt a personal connection to the game in this country, and it has given me some incredible moments already.

And Tuchel will feel right at home as he is set to be reunited with highly-rated assistant coach Anthony Barry.

But fans want to know exactly what makes Barry so special.

Who is Anthony Barry?

Born in Liverpool, Anthony Barry openly admitted that he did not enjoy his footballing playing career as it was blighted by injury.

The Englishman dislocated his kneecap at just age 24 while playing for Yeovil.

And despite returning to action 17 months later, Barry had lost the passion to play, which then led to him doing his coaching badges.

He got his first taste of coaching action with Accrington Stanley’s Under-16 side and then a year later, Barry worked alongside Paul Cook at Wigan.

Barry blossomed at Wigan and it was there where he worked with a young Reece James who spent the 2018/19 season on loan at the club.

Fast forward 12 months, the pair were reunited at Chelsea after the Blues legend brought Barry into his backroom team.

The English duo studied together on their UEFA Pro License course along with Jody Morris.

This is where Barry developed his eye for detail as his dissertation project at the end of the course was on throw-ins – he looked at 17,000 throw-ins and was quickly labelled a set-piece specialist.

Barry was still at Chelsea when Tuchel replaced Lampard and the pair maintained a good partnership which is why Tuchel brought Barry with him to Bayern.

Furthermore, Barry has a mass amount of international pedigree as he most notably worked with Belgium and Portugal at the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 respectively.

What has been said?

“Our relationship is very respectful and friendly,” Barry told club media after Thomas Tuchel’s appointment at Bayern. “I admired Thomas from the first day. We have a lot of parallels – how we work and how we see football.

“We try to push each other and to improve. That allows us to work at a very high level because we can be completely honest with each other. We talk very openly, discuss our ideas and always try to find the best solution.”

Barry was a specialist set-piece coach at Bayern, having written a dissertation on throw-ins as part of his Pro Licence course. “As a top team, you need to be top at set pieces. It’s an important area for us that we want to work on,” he explained.

Tuchel added: “The whole package is right for him: his personality, the love of the game, the love of his job, his passion and his quality. He brings a lot of energy. His work with set-pieces at Chelsea was on a whole new level for me.”