KIM HELLBERG on his amazing coaching journey, how he’s fuelling Middlesbrough’s promotion push, his quirky rules in training and how he learnt to laugh about his hair transplant

Kim Hellberg, the 38-year-old manager of high-flying Middlesbrough, was once a failed footballer turned kindergarten teacher with a fear of public speaking. It was never an ideal mix given his ambitions to become a coach but, to the Swede, challenges only really exist in order to be overcome.

There have been others, too, he tells Daily Mail Sport from behind his desk at Middlesbrough’s training ground. Asked what they were, he doesn’t miss a beat.

‘Well, I had a hair transplant two Decembers ago,’ he reveals. ‘I struggled a lot with my hair and I felt very bad about it. I am being open with you but I will say it anyway.

‘When I was a coach and it was wet and windy I always put a cap on because I felt shame that people would be able to tell. So I did it during Swedish pre-season and that was tough in the beginning. I was in one of the biggest clubs in Sweden so you know everyone is looking.

‘I tried to joke about it and be open. That is what I have learned. You can take the edge off things that way.’

The club are on a fine run and were recently top of the table

Hellberg has only been talking for 15 minutes but some of his principles of leadership are already clear. Human frailties, he says, are part of life and, by extension, sport.

He gave up on hopes of being a professional footballer in his early 20s and turned to coaching. He was so far down the Swedish pyramid at tiny fifth-tier clubs like Kimstad and Kuddby that it was impossible to see him. And maybe it was just as well.

‘I really struggled with speaking in front of people but I had to overcome it because I wanted to be a coach so much,’ he says. ‘I did some small things to help. Before going into a room, I did breathing exercises. I was more comfortable if the lights were off with just a tactics screen. They couldn’t see me as well.

‘But it was still very tough. It was never on a pitch. That’s always been fine. But standing in front of people in that teaching environment was the thing. I just fought through. I had to trick myself that it was OK and that’s what I tell the players now. If you trick yourself enough times that you are OK, then you will start to believe it.

‘It’s been a big journey for me and I am proud of it. There have been a lot of things that I have struggled with but I try to be open and try to get better.’

Before we meet, Hellberg conducts a 35-minute press conference ahead of tonight’s Championship home game with Leicester. His hair is as immaculate as his delivery. So if those problems are behind him, he now faces the more traditional challenges of taking a big club back to where it feels it belongs.

This week marks the three-month anniversary of him taking over on Teesside from Rob Edwards and his impact has been profound. Recently, Middlesbrough overtook leaders Coventry at the top of the table only for defeat against Frank Lampard’s team to see previous order restored.

As a child Hellberg used to accompany his father Stefan, a coach for 35 years, to England to watch games and Lampard was his hero.

As a child Hellberg used to accompany his father Stefan, a coach for 35 years, to England to watch games and Lampard – now the Coventry manager – was his hero

Haji Wright’s hat-trick for Coventry dealt Boro a blow in the promotion race last week, handing Frank Lampard’s side a vital three points in the top-of-the-table clash at the Riverside Stadium

‘Before and after the game at Coventry it was a handshake and all normal,’ he says. ‘But before, in the referee’s room, it was maybe more of a special moment for me because of who it was.’

Hellberg’s journey through the ranks of the Swedish game took a decade and a half but he long since had a sense of certainty. Middlesbrough hired him from Stockholm-based Hammarby, one of Sweden’s biggest clubs. Swansea were also interested. Before that it was another club of stature, IFK Varnamo, and previous to that he worked alongside his father as joint assistant coaches at Norrkopping, another top-tier club.

But it was at his early postings in the part-time world of Swedish provincial football that many of his most deep-seated beliefs took hold.

‘I loved playing but it wasn’t going to pay my bills,’ he explains. ‘So coaching was my big aim, to live and work that way. It took me six or seven years to get there. My first five years I would say I was earning £200 a month maybe. So I was at the kindergarten as well.

‘At that level it was more about merely trying to get players to come to training. It was not about tactics, it was about getting a group together and getting them to drink together after a game on a Saturday and just building something.

‘We won promotion twice. So now the away games took all day. I was best man for one guy’s wedding but then had to tell him he was coming with us all day but wasn’t going to play. It was good practice for the future. If I could put my best man – who doesn’t get any money for playing – on the bench then I can do it to anyone. It’s not a problem.

‘The most important thing in football is managing people. The tactics must be right in order to do that. I have to get their trust in my hands. I want them to have interest in how we play. But without the management part, you will never get to talk about tactics as none of them will ever listen to you.’

Hellberg celebrates after leading Boro to victory over Norwich last month

‘Coaching was my big aim,’ Hellberg says, ‘to live and work that way. It took me six or seven years to get there’

Hellberg’s style of possession-based football has a modern slant. Some of his sessions at Middlesbrough have echoes of Marcelo Bielsa’s renowned ‘murderball’ in terms of their intensity. Defender Luke Ayling, who has played for both men, says Hellberg is like no coach he has ever met.

There are quirks, too. In training, for example, shirt pulling and slide tackles are forbidden.

‘This is about not letting players take the easy way out,’ Hellberg explains. ‘I want them to run and not pull shirts. In an actual game if we need to do it, we will. No problem. But not here, among ourselves.

‘Slide tackles is the same. Be strong enough not to dive in. Also, we make players so tired – like Bielsa murderball – and when that happens they throw themselves in to things. But it shows a lack of respect and can be dangerous. 

‘Staying on your legs when tired is a good thing to learn and I am very clear. When I have a rule I will make it count. These things will happen but when they do I will give the ball to the opposition 10 times in a row. They will soon stop, yeah? The few rules you have, you must use well.’

If Hellberg has spent a life punching upwards then maybe he is at the right club. Middlesbrough have always had to shout to make themselves heard, too. 

In the club shop they are already selling T-shirts with ‘Hellball’ on them and Hellberg vows to buy one for his three-year old son, Harry. His wife and children – the couple also have a newborn daughter – are now together in the North East after moving from Sweden earlier this month.

After Tuesday night’s game there will be 12 matches left for Hellberg and his team. Coventry – three points clear – are at Sheffield United on Wednesday. Millwall sit six points behind in third. So expectation is building and with that comes some pressure.

Callum Brittain of Middlesbrough celebrates during the match against Sheffield United. After Tuesday night’s game there will be 12 matches left for Hellberg and his team 

Boro’s Tommy Conway scores his team’s fourth goal against Preston last month

‘I feel at home here at Boro,’ Hellberg says. ‘The fans have been brilliant to me. I wish I could promise to win every game. I can’t but I can promise that we will try to do everything we can’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ smiles Hellberg. ‘So it’s time to fight. In my career I was never a first choice. At Kuddby there were 11 people offered the job before me. While I was there, people would call me to come and be an assistant but never a coach.

‘There are some coaches who as soon as they get interviews, they get the job. For me, it has felt like the opposite. I am not saying it’s right or wrong. It’s just life.

‘But I have just had to be better than everybody else to get that opportunity. I understand it. I wasn’t a player, I come from grassroots football. I didn’t come from an academy. I am a Swede and there aren’t that many who have come before me. But I am happy to try to show that I can come from the lowest division in Swedish football – the 26th-ranked league in Europe – and go all the way.

‘I feel at home here and have been very well received by the fans. They have been brilliant to me. I wish I could promise to win every game. I can’t because each game has its own life. I can only promise that we will try to do everything we can. I will do everything I can to fight for it, just like I have for everything before.’