The 49-year-old Basque coach signed a 1.5-year-deal at Maccabi running until June 2024 and his first match in charge will be Saturday’s league match at Bloomfield stadium against Ashdod. Karanka will be joined by Igor Alexandre Gameiro Dias as an Assistant coach, Juan Torrijo as the Fitness Coach and Carlos Luengo Pena as an Analyst with the Goalkeeper coach joining in due course.
Maccabi’s owner Mitch Goldhar told the club’s official website: “I am delighted to welcome Aitor Karanka to the Club. He comes with the experience, both as a player and a Coach, as well as the necessary hunger to achieve results. We are excited to begin our work together”.
Karanka said after his appointment: “I am excited and proud to be here and to be part of a club with so such much history and tradition as Maccabi Tel Aviv. I am grateful to Mitch for entrusting me and my team. I understood from the first conversation how ambitious the Club is and the standard that is expected. I will give everything to help develop the team, keep Maccabi Tel Aviv moving forward and make the supporters proud. We have already began our work and will be focused from the first moment to fulfil the Club’s ambition.”
Karanka, a former defender at Ahtletic Bilbao (1993-1997 and 2002-2006), Real Madrid (1997-2002) and MLS outfit Colorado Rapids (2006) also represented Spain’s national teams at U21, U23 and senior levels.
Following his retirement as a player he was appointed in 2008 as Spain U16 coach and two years later he joined Real Madrid and worked for three years as Jose Mourinho’s assistant.
In November 2013 Karanka was appointed as manager of Championship outfit Middlesbrough before guiding the Riverside Club to the promotion Playoff Final. After four years at Middleborough during which he helped M’boro win promotion to the Premier League (2015/16), Karanka had spells at Nottingham Forrest (2018/19), Birmingham City (2020/21), and La Liga side Granada (2022).
