Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg has professed his personal appreciation for current Coventry City manager Frank Lampard, with the two clubs presently occupying the Championship’s automatic promotion places.

The second tier’s wide-open nature this season has allowed Middlesbrough and the Sky Blues to lead the battle for Premier League football next season, with both sides looking to end their separate exiles from English football’s top level.

The Riverside Stadium has not hosted Premier League football in nine years, with the Reds failing to re-establish their position in the top division under Aitor Karanka and Steve Agnew.

Meanwhile, Coventry fans have been on an emotional rollercoaster since their last Premier League game, when they were relegated on the final day of the 2000/01 season after losing 3-2 to Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Ironically, the last time Middlesbrough hosted the country’s top teams at the Riverside Stadium, Coventry were relegated to League Two under Mark Robins, who was able to turn around the Sky Blues’ fortunes before being replaced by Lampard at the Coventry Building Society Arena in November 2024.

Hellberg has had a largely positive impact on the Boro squad that he inherited from Rob Edwards, who left for the Premier League’s bottom club, Wolves, two-and-a-half months ago in rather controversial circumstances.

A recent contrasting run of form has reduced Coventry’s lead at the top of the Championship to just goal difference, with Middlesbrough currently equal on points with Lampard’s side after winning five consecutive games.

While he hopes to overtake the high-profile Coventry manager in the standings and become the first man to win a league title on Teesside in 31 years, Hellberg confessed that he enjoyed watching Lampard during his highly successful playing career at Stamford Bridge.

In the middle of Middlesbrough’s promotion struggle, Kim Hellberg makes his “favourite” assertion about Coventry City manager Frank Lampard.

Hellberg spoke on Middlesbrough’s official club podcast with former Riverside Stadium favourites Craig Hignett and David Wheater about a variety of football-related issues, including their favourite players to watch individually.

Wheater posed the well-known ‘Lampard vs Steven Gerrard’ debate to the Boro manager, to which Hellberg responded: “Lampard is my favourite player of all time.

When asked why, he explained, “My English team was Chelsea, so I grew up watching Lampard.”I frequently travel to watch football with my father.As soon as I became 17, 18, and began to train myself, I just watched football.

“But, when I was younger, it was Chelsea (I watched), and Frank Lampard was my favourite,” he quipped.

Lampard, of course, will be remembered for his playing days in West London, as he is still Chelsea’s all-time leading goalscorer, having scored 211 goals in all competitions while winning the Premier League three times, the FA Cup four times, and being a member of the team that defeated Bayern Munich on penalties to win the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League.

Kim Hellberg will face Frank Lampard for the first time in the forthcoming Coventry City vs Middlesbrough match.

Hellberg will now have to wait only a few days until he will share the touchline with his childhood hero, as Coventry and Boro face off in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Monday, February 16th.

Both clubs must first face Oxford United and Sheffield United, but they will both be in the automatic promotion places by the time their crunch match arrives, with Hull City currently four points behind the two sides and out of Championship action that weekend due to FA Cup success.