From PE teacher to Premier League boss for Boro's Hellberg?

With 11 games of a gruelling and thrilling Championship promotion race to go, Middlesbrough are primed to end a spell of nine years away from the Premier League.

If they can finish in the top two when the music stops in early May - they now sit second, three points clear of Ipswich Town albeit having played a game more - their unassuming head coach Kim Hellberg will write himself into Boro folklore.

But go back to the start of the campaign and there's a fair chance few, if any, of the club's supporters would have known who Hellberg was.

Previously working back home at Hammarby, the 38-year-old Swede arrived at the Riverside Stadium in November as an unheralded replacement for Rob Edwards, who had left for Wolves.

However, in the space of a few months, some thrilling football, allied to warmth and humility off the pitch, means Teesside has taken Hellberg to its heart.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Radio Tees, the Boro head coach opened up on how he has come from the lower reaches of Swedish football to the brink of the English top flight.

Hellberg's chance at Boro came after Edwards departed for Wolves, less than five months and 15 games into the Welshman's reign at the club.

But while Edwards' stay was brief, his replacement believes he has found a place where he sees his future - and one in the Premier League.

"I see myself here in three years," Hellberg said. "I will try as much as I can every day to get to the Premier League.

"That's the goal. I said that when I was coming here, this year, next year or the year after that, I will do everything I can to get there and that's what I'm going to do."

Previous managers to lead Middlesbrough to promotion to the top flight include Jack Charlton, Bryan Robson and Aitor Karanka.

A World Cup winner, an England and Manchester United captain, a multiple Champions League winner with Real Madrid.

Storied playing careers that opened doors to the dugout.

Hellberg has not had that luxury.

His playing career was a modest one in Sweden's lower leagues until he retired at 22, realising he was not good enough to go further.

His ambition was to go into coaching like his father, Stefan, who spent years as assistant at Norrkoping, the town where Kim grew up.

But that meant starting way down the ladder, while at the same time working as first a PE teacher and then a primary school teacher for three-and-a-half years.

"Being a teacher was fun, and I liked it, but it was not something I wanted to do for 40 years," he said.

"I wanted to be a football coach so much.

"I can always look back to the time I was a teacher, trying to get some sleep in between work and evening training sessions and having no money.

"Going away on vacation was impossible as I had to keep everything together in putting everything on being a football coach.

"There were a lot of years where I spent every minute I didn't have to work on being a coach. That's what I had to do."

Hellberg's chance came at a club called Kimstad in the seventh tier of Swedish football.

He jokes he was the 12th choice and was put in a charge of a side including some of his best friends.

But proving himself is something that Hellberg has subsequently done consistently during 15 years in the dugout.

Working his way up the ranks, dispelling myths about his lack of a successful playing career, he won promotions down the divisions before landing a job in the Allsvenskan, Sweden's top flight, in 2021 with IFK Varnamo.

Not only did he keep the newly-promoted club up with one of the league's lowest budgets, he then took them to fifth place the following season.

That brought him to the attention of Stockholm-based Hammarby, with a bigger budget and more pressure and expectation.

Two seasons delivered successive runners-up spots, playing the attractive and fluid possession game he has brought to England, bringing him wider attention, and he was on the radar for the vacant Swansea City job before Boro grabbed him.

But with his biggest achievement possibly just around the corner, what Hellberg is most proud of is how his coaching and personality have allowed him to keep progressing.

"My perspective is very important to have with me as I know where I came from, how hard I worked to be here and I have no playing career," he said.

"Every player I've coached has been better than me, even at the lowest division.

"I've grown a lot of confidence from that. I had to be a good person and a good coach even for [Swedish fifth-tier] Kuddby players to respect me.

"That's been a good journey for me to always come into a club to show I'm good at this - I'm not here because I was good at playing football.

"I'm here because I'm a good person, a good coach, good at building a structure, putting a game together and developing players. That gives me belief in the long way I work."

Being a manager or a head coach in football these days makes you a public figure. Whether you like it or not, it is a huge part of the job.

Answering questions in front of TV cameras and rooms full of journalists are commonplace, as well as sessions with supporters' clubs.

The head coach has to inspire all the staff who work at a football club as well as be comfortable stood up in front of a dressing room of up to 30 players in what can be an intimidating environment.

That is not for everyone and it certainly wouldn't have been for a young Hellberg, who was described as a 'quiet, shy boy' in his youth.

He still says now that he is happiest at home watching a film with his wife, and he would go out of his way to avoid small talk in the street, even with people he knows.

But he is honest enough to admit that putting himself in intimidating situations to speak in public and special breathing techniques have allowed him to develop a successful method of leading in his role as a football coach.

"Wanting something so much, you have to do it," he said.

"It was trying to find different things to grow from it, breathing exercises and all those different things to give myself more confidence and calmness in doing it.

"I'm very proud of that journey. It was something that was tough as a boy and when I started my career. But I had to do it.

"We can overcome most things, but we really need to try with our heart - and then the brain and the heart together is very strong."