Aitor Karanka

Photography by Jon Enoch

aitor karanka

Player, Athletic Bilbao 1990-1999, Real Madrid 1999-2001

As a coach, Aitor Karanka led Middlesbrough into the Premier League and assisted José Mourinho when Real Madrid beat Pep Guardiola's Barcelona to La Liga in 2012. Before that, though, he had a successful playing career that took in spells at Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid and finally in Major League Soccer.

Influenced first by Jupp Heynckes in a Bilbao team that also featured Ernesto Valverde, Karanka followed the decorated Heynckes to the Santiago Bernabéu. At Madrid, he featured in a Champions League-winning squad alongside the likes of future Spain manager Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Fernando Redondo, Clarence Seedorf, Davor Suker and Raul. After Heynckes' departure, Karanka remained at Real and played under Vicente del Bosque, who reinvented the team he inherited and inspired them to again win Europe's biggest club competition. Speaking exclusively to The Coaches' Voice, with the benefit of his years in coaching, Karanka revisits how Heynckes and Del Bosque organised those three teams, and the roles and responsibilities their many great players were given.

Author: Tony Hodson

Additional Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Cookie	Purpose	More information
join-mailing-list	WordPress sets this cookie when you load any page, We will hide newsletter form after click on close button and it will not show again on any page.	Cookie Value: 1 Expiry time: 1 week
gated-list_	WordPress sets this cookie when you load an article page, We will hide contact form after you click on the close button and it will not show again on the particular article page.	Cookie Value: dynamic cookie value generated here Expiry time: 1 week
wordpress_test_cookie	WordPress sets this cookie when you navigate to the login page. The cookie is used to check whether your web browser is set to allow, or reject cookies.	Cookie Value: WP Cookie check Expiry time: session
wp-settings-1	WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.	Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings Expiry time: session
wp-settings-time-1	WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.	Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings Expiry time: session
wordpress_logged_in_xxxxx	WordPress uses this cookie to indicate when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use.	Cookie Value: Your login details in an encrypted form Expiry time: session
wordpress_xxxxx	WordPress uses these cookies to store your authentication details, and their use is limited to the admin console area.	Cookie Value: Your login authentication details in an encrypted form Expiry time: session

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after the expiry periods stated in the table above.