Aitor Karanka says he had the “best and the worst experience” of his managerial career at Middlesbrough.
The 52-year-old is currently Spain’s director of development. Friday’s edition of Sport has published detailed interviewed with him.
The majority of the discussion was around the national team and their players. Sport also asked him about his managerial career, which obviously includes his spell at Middlesbrough.
Karanka started his coaching career with Spain’s U16. He joined Real Madrid as part of Jose Mourinho’s backroom staff and his first job as a head coach was at Boro.
“It shaped me in every way. During that time, I had experiences I’d never had before. There was so much talk in those El Clásicos,” he said about workng with Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid.
“Three years after leaving Jose, I went to England on my own, another experience. I didn’t speak the language as fluently as I do now, and it was a league I didn’t know. I was the first foreign manager of Middlesbrough.”
Middlesbrough appointed the Spaniard as manager in November 2013. He was at the club until March 2017.
Karanka had helped them get promoted to the Premier League. Boro were relegated back to the Championship in 2017 and have been in the second division since then. That could change next season.
Middlesbrough spell impossible to replicate
Sport pointed out to the Spaniard that he was the foreign manager to help Middlesbrough get promoted to the Premier League. When responding to that, he raves about his spell with Boro.
“Whenever I hear about Middlesbrough, I remember it as both the best and worst experience of my coaching career,” Karanka explained.
“I had owners with whom I still maintain a good relationship, and Peter Kenyon as an advisor, a true master of world football.
“On the other hand, I knew that it would be impossible to find anything similar as a manager afterward. It was a spectacular experience.”
After Middlesbrough, Karanka had spells at Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City, Granada and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
