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1. At first, it seemed like he didn’t want the job

Southgate turned down the chance to be caretaker manager of the England team in 2016. It was the right decision according to Gareth’s good friend, mentor and manager from his time at Crystal Palace, Alan Smith: “I don’t think he was convinced, the way that the job was being put to him… on a short term contract, on a salary that wasn’t conducive with being the England manager.” Smith states, “Gareth knows his worth. He’s no fool.”

2. He nearly didn’t go into football at all

As a young boy in Crawley, Sussex, Southgate was good at most things: he was on the school rugby team, he was triple jump county champion, and he was excelling academically. He got a number of GCSEs and could have completed his A-Levels too, says Gordon Parry, his former deputy head. Gareth was one of those students able to combine an effective academic life with being “a very promising sportsman”.

3. His first manager told him to become a travel agent

At 16, Gareth joined Crystal Palace where, as a member of the youth team, he was told to man up or get out. His manager, Alan Smith, recalls how after losing a match against a British Army 11 he spotted Southgate shaking hands with the opposition and thanking them. Smith called him in and said, “Gareth look, if I was you I’d become a travel agent because I don’t think football’s going to be for you, if you go on like this.” The player “welled up a little bit” but he was able to “pick himself up and realise what being a professional footballer was about.”

4. Southgate’s nickname used to be “Nord”

When he was younger, the now England manager was known by the nickname “Nord”. Guardian football correspondent, Louise Taylor, explains how it was coined when he was at Crystal Palace “because of the precise way that he spoke” and his “grey Hush Puppies” – which reminded everyone of TV presenter Denis Norden!

5. He could play in a variety of positions

Southgate was eager to please, and able to slot in anywhere on the pitch. In the youth team at Crystal Place he played right back, centre back, left back, or in midfield. But it was this role as a utility player that Simon Osborn, Southgate’s former team mate, describes as “one of his biggest problems.” Osborn believes it was when he landed at centre half and then the back three at Aston Villa “that he really, really shone.”

6. He cleans up after himself

Palace youth team manager Alan Smith once took his team on a tour of Italy, where he let them off the leash. After a fair few drinks, Gareth was “trying to get to his room a bit quick” when Chairman Ron Noades came over. Held up in his quest for a toilet, the player “managed to throw up over Ron’s white slatted shoes.” Naturally, he apologised and “cleaned them up” the next morning!

7. His mum gave him some advice after missing THAT penalty

At the Euro '96 semi-final against Germany, Southgate made the brave move to step up and take a penalty in the end of game shootout. But the penalty was saved and England were knocked out. Even his own mother had a question or two for him, according to the Guardian’s Louise Taylor. Apparently she asked, unhelpfully, “Why didn’t you just blast it, dear?”

8. He even got a ribbing from a Buddhist monk

Shortly after that fateful penalty shootout, Gareth married his wife Alison (who he’d met in a Croydon clothing store). The couple jetted off for a getting-away-from-it-all honeymoon in Bali, where they came in contact with a Buddhist monk. “They were expecting some sort of quite spiritual, mystical conversation,” Louise Taylor states, but “the guy looked at him again and said, ‘It’s you, it’s you, isn’t it? England. Penalty miss.’”

9. He was in a pizza TV advert

In a remarkable piece of self-deprecation, Gareth agreed to take part in a tongue-in-cheek TV advert alongside former England footballers Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle. The one thing they had in common? They’d all missed penalties for England.

9. He’s good at slipping song titles into TV interviews

At the 1998 World Cup, the England players dared each other to slip song titles into their press and TV interviews. Gareth Southgate rose to the challenge, casually mentioning George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” and “Club Tropicana”. Alan Shearer recalls how, “he was better at that than most. He was certainly better at naming the songs than he was at penalties anyway!”

10. Ten years after the missed penalty, Gareth made the leap to manager

He was at Middlesbrough when he went from playing for the team, to managing the team. Something that Louise Taylor suspects was “very tough”. It certainly wasn’t plain sailing: when the team were relegated Southgate was sacked, which Alan Smith says was a huge “learning curve for him”. Following this disappointment he travelled the world picking up different coaching techniques, before becoming boss of England’s under-21s in 2013.

11. He’s a “steady Eddy”

So what skills does he bring to the England job? Simon Osborn says the “best way to describe Gareth… is probably the steady Eddy. He’s your go-to man. He’s your seven out of ten.” That sounds underwhelming but “if we can get the majority of our players, seven or eight of the team, playing at seven or eight,” he says, “you’re in with a good chance of winning games.”