Rosenior has signed a contract with the Blues until 2032 and said: ‘I am extremely humbled and honoured to be appointed Head Coach of Chelsea Football Club.

'This is a club with a unique spirit and a proud history of winning trophies. My job is to protect that identity and create a team that reflects these values in every game we play as we continue winning trophies.

'To be entrusted with this role means the world to me and I want to thank all involved for the opportunity and faith in undertaking this job. I will give everything to bring the success this club deserves.'

The Blues are the third club that Rosenior, who was born just a couple of miles away from Stamford Bridge in Wandsworth, will lead on a permanent basis. He also becomes the second black Chelsea head coach, following in the footsteps of Ruud Gullit almost 30 years ago.

And we begin our look at Rosenior's football journey at the very start...

Footballing roots

Rosenior grew up around football due to his father, Leroy. A former forward for Fulham, Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United, among others, Leroy went into coaching when he retired, mostly in non-league and the lower leagues.

It was in this environment that the young Liam grew up, observing his father’s coaching and soon showing impressive talent of his own. Aged just 11, he took training sessions with his school team while also playing for them.

‘The tactical side of football, the planning, the preparation of the team were all things that interested me right from the beginning,’ Rosenior told the Premier League website last year.

Liam Rosenior’s playing career

As a player, Rosenior was best known as a dependable right-back who could also be deployed in midfield. He spent the majority of his career in the Premier League and the Championship, racking up over 400 senior appearances.

Rosenior came through at Bristol City before joining Fulham midway through the 2003/04 season. Rosenior broke into the side the following season and quickly earned international recognition with England Under-20s and Under-21s. He remained a regular at Craven Cottage until departing for fellow Premier League club Reading in the summer of 2007.

After two seasons at the Madejski, Rosenior joined Ipswich Town on loan before completing a permanent move to Hull City early in the 2010/11 campaign.

He would go on to play 161 times for the Tigers, captaining them on occasion and starting the 2014 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.

Rosenior finished his playing career at Brighton as they won promotion to the Premier League for the first time, eventually hanging up his boots in 2018.

Liam Rosenior’s coaching career

Aged 34, Rosenior went straight into coaching. He spent a season as Brighton Under-23s’ assistant coach before moving to Derby County to become a member of Phillip Cocu’s backroom staff.

As specialist first-team coach, he was charged with developing young talent on the training ground and analysing opposition teams.

Rosenior stepped up to the role of assistant manager following Wayne Rooney’s appointment at the start of 2021, and the following year spent time as the Rams’ interim manager, winning seven and drawing two of his 12 games in charge in League One.

Rosenior left Pride Park upon Paul Warne’s arrival as manager in September 2022. It wasn’t long before Hull City acquired the services of their former defender, appointing Rosenior as their new head coach.

Positioned one point above the relegation zone, Rosenior steered them to safety and then, in his only full season on Humberside, guided Hull to seventh place in the Championship.

He took over Strasbourg in Ligue 1 in the summer of 2024 and helped them finish seventh, securing Les Alsaciens European football for the first time in 19 years. Strasbourg finished top of the UEFA Conference League standings this season, with five wins from their six games before Christmas, including a victory over Crystal Palace in France.

Liam Rosenior’s coaching style

Rosenior has forged a reputation for building teams that are expressive in possession and attack-minded. Strasbourg have played the fewest long passes in Europe’s top five leagues this season as he likes his teams to build from the back.

During his coaching career Rosenior has also shown adaptability, switching between a back four and a back three depending on his team’s needs. Something else worth noting is that last season Strasbourg scored more goals from corners than every team in Ligue 1 and conceded the joint-fewest.

The 41-year-old has received plenty of praise for nourishing talent and nurturing a strong team ethic.

The likes of Liam Delap, Fabio Carvalho and Tyler Morton thrived on loan at Hull early in their careers. Strasbourg, meanwhile, have regularly had the youngest starting XI in Ligue 1 yet have continued to pose problems to the division’s top teams.

They beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in May and drew 3-3 away to the European champions a couple of months ago.

What's been said

Rooney and Rosenior joined forces at Derby for almost two years before the former England striker’s resignation in June 2022. He had this to say of Rosenior on his BBC podcast.

‘Liam is as good a coach as I've ever worked with. His detail, how he approaches the day-to-day, he's as good as I've worked with.

‘Liam was so important to me. He was incredible in his coaching ability. I was more of the manager and dealing with players and everything. So I learned a lot from him from that point of view and then I think he's done a great job as a whole.’

Chelsea's Andrey Santos excelled under Rosenior at Strasbourg last season, scoring 12 goals from midfield, and said this in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe.

‘He’s a great coach. I love working with him. All the players are excited by his commitment, his vision. Plus, the style he wants is perfect for me. He wants possession, to multiply passes to bother opponents, and he wants to win, that’s the most important thing.

‘He asks me to do everything: defend, win the ball back, and pass it as cleanly as possible. But he also gives me the freedom to be myself, to shoot from distance, to enter the box. I feel useful.’

Habib Diarra, who joined Sunderland from Strasbourg ahead of this season, said Rosenior helped him ‘mentally, technically, in terms of my game intelligence, and as a person’ during their time working together in France.

Former Blues defender Ben Chilwell, now at Strasbourg, said Rosenior is ‘destined for the very top’ – and that is where our new head coach now finds himself.