Identity lies at the heart of the World Cup. Who are we and how do we play? Does our academy system work better than yours? What do your coaching pathways look like compared with ours? And do you still get a bit emotional every time you watch that BBC montage of England’s penalty shootout win over Colombia at the 2018 World Cup?

Maybe not if you happen to be Thomas Tuchel. This is not a man weighed down by the ghosts of England tournaments past. There is no missed penalty haunting this gangly German intellectual in his sleep, no costly red card in a knockout tie stalking his nightmares. For Tuchel, meaning is found merely in the pursuit of victory. At first glance there is no deeper cultural connection here and, for all the breezy talk of putting a second star on the shirt, there are times when it is hard to understand why Tuchel wants to bring an end to England men’s 60 years of hurt this summer.

Of course, winning the World Cup would look good on the CV. The attraction of the job is obvious. The rewards are vast and the players are elite. Yet even if it makes sense on a sporting level, it is still fascinating to consider the wider motivation for Tuchel given it is safe to assume he was not supporting England when they lost those semi-finals to the Germans at Italia 90 and Euro 96.

It comes back to the idea that what separates international football from the club game is playing for something bigger. For some, the aim is to go down as a legend in your own country, but Tuchel is not from England. He will not sing the national anthem when England face Croatia in their opening game in Group L in Dallas on Thursday. Will there be criticism from the usual suspects? Perhaps, but Tuchel is unlikely to care. He knows the words – “It is not so difficult,” he said with a grin – and explained that he still feels too shy to join in when the music strikes up.

Tuchel’s predecessor brought a different energy. Gareth Southgate almost treated the England job as a higher calling. He spoke about politics and behaved like a man trying to heal the nation. Southgate wrote an open letter about society’s divisions and ended up being played by Joseph Fiennes in the stage and television versions of Dear England.

There is none of that with Tuchel. His title is head coach rather than manager. He is not interested in talking about politics and his background means he is never going to become as overwhelmed by the job as Southgate was by the end of his time in charge.

Still, though, there are layers to Tuchel. As a young coach he rose through the German pressing school. He has been described as a “footballaholic” and is bright, engaging and funny. His eccentric streak appeals to England’s love of a maverick, yet the willingness to speak his mind can sometimes feel very un-English. It is hard, for instance, to picture Southgate ever calling one of his players repulsive.

“Thomas is almost Latin in the way he speaks,” the FA’s technical director, John McDermott, said in Inside England, a book about the team’s journey over the past decade. “There’s a warmth and there’s a tactileness. He comes alive when he’s speaking about the team, the players, the games.”

Tuchel did not click with the French media when he managed Paris Saint-Germain and has a reputation for being a hothead in Germany. He fell out with Joshua Kimmich at Bayern Munich and has always sounded ambivalent when talking about German football.

England is where he most comes alive. It felt right for Tuchel when he became Chelsea’s manager in January 2021 and led them to Champions League glory four months later. Lockdown measures were still in place, but the 52-year-old talked enthusiastically about wanting to discover London’s bookshops and best coffee spots. “It’s the country, it’s the humour, it’s the way of life,” Tuchel once said of his love of England as a country.

He is not putting it on. He likes zooming around the capital on Lime bikes. He has found his favourite gastropub and when he was younger he loved to pretend to be Chris Waddle “with the collar up in my garden” after watching the England winger during the 1990 World Cup.

Perhaps Tuchel’s desire to lead England to glory is not such a mystery. Unlike Fabio Capello, he gets the culture. His favourite novel? TC Boyle’s Water Music, a story about a London thief and a Scottish explorer as they seek the source of the Niger River in Africa in the 18th century. The impression is that Tuchel feels a connection with England. Asked if he is an anglophile, he says: “I can’t explain it but it felt like this from the first weeks at Chelsea. It just felt so good to be in the country and a part of the Premier League. Every day was a gift almost.

“What the league brings out of players and what the fans expect from the players, the coach made me feel very comfortable. I liked it from the first day. I cannot say often enough, it’s an honour for me to be England head coach. I feel basically at home when I land. I would say now: ‘I fly home.’ I fly home to my home in London. It feels like home when I land in London and I’m in England.”

This is more than an expensive gun for hire. Tuchel cares. The longer he stays the less he feels like an outsider.