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Hellberg - themaclad - 24-11-2025
Middlesbrough have appointed Kim Hellberg as their new head coach.
The 37-year-old who had been in charge of Swedish side Hammarby, replaces Rob Edwards, who left for Premier League strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier this month.
This is a first job for Hellberg outside his native Sweden, although he had been in talks with Championship rivals Swansea City earlier this month.
Hellberg will take over officially later in the week, with Adi Viveash remaining in interim charge for the home game against Championship leaders Coventry City on Tuesday.
Boro remain in second, seven points behind the Sky Blues after only losing two of their 16 league games this season.
Hellberg is Boro's second managerial appointment in five months, with Edwards departing for Wolves just 14 games into his tenure at the Riverside.
Having been in charge at Hammarby for the past two seasons, Hellberg led the Stockholm-based club to successive second-placed finishes in Sweden's top-flight Allsvenskan.
Hellberg, who spent his playing career in the Swedish lower leagues, had a year to run on his deal with Hammarby.
He began his coaching career in the Swedish lower divisions with Kuddby IF and later IF Sylvia before joining the staff at top-tier club IFK Norkopping in 2020.
His first head coach role in the Allsvenskan came at IFK Varnamo, where two impressive seasons led to his move to Hammarby.
"A lot of things make Boro the perfect choice for me," said Hellberg. "The way they play and want to play, together with the crowd, suits me and how I want to work."
He will be accompanied to Teesside by his assistant David Selini, with Viveash remaining part of the backroom staff.
While unknown to the vast majority of English audiences, Boro's director of football Kieran Scott had Hellberg's progress at Hammarby on the radar, and he believes the the club have recruited a head coach whose stock is on the rise.
"Kim is someone I've been monitoring for a while," Scott told the club's website., external
"He's well known in the circles of European football as an up-and-coming head coach that was catching a lot of people's eye and was doing really well at Hammarby.
"We met a few candidates, but Kim was high on my list of people I wanted to speak to."
Ex-Wolves first-team coach Ian Burchnall is in the running to replace Hellberg at Hammarby.
Burchnall, a former Forest Green and Notts County manager, has previously managed in Scandinavia having taken charge of Viking in Norway and Ostersunds in Sweden, when he succeeded Graham Potter in 2018.
Burchnall had been working with Jamaica under Steve McClaren for their last six World Cup qualifiers before McClaren stood down last week following the Reggae Boyz's failure to seal automatic qualification.