Aitor Karanka

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Personal information
Aitor Karanka

Full name	Aitor Karanka de la Hoz
Date of birth	September 18, 1973 (1973-09-18) (age 34)
Place of birth	Vitoria, Álava, Spain
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11+¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	Central defender
Youth clubs
1991-1992	Corazonistas Deportivo Alavés Athletic Bilbao
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1992 1992-1997 1997-2002 2002-2006 2006	Bilbao Athletic Athletic Bilbao Real Madrid Athletic Bilbao Colorado Rapids	53 (2) 118 (2) 93 (0) 64 (2) 28 (0)
National team²
1995 1994-2004	Spain Euskadi XI	1 (0) 6 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of October 24, 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of October 24, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (born September 18, 1973 in Vitoria, Álava) is a retired Spanish footballer, who last played for the Colorado Rapids of the MLS. He has previously played for Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid, Spain and the Euskadi XI. His brother, David, is also a footballer.

Karanka, a central defender, began his career with the junior side Corazonistas and also played at a junior level for Deportivo Alavés. He made his professional debut with Bilbao Athletic in 1991 and went onto make 53 appearances for the reserve side, scoring twice. Along with Julen Guerrero, he was a member of the Athletic U-19 team that won a national cup and league double in 1992. Karanka was promoted to the senior Bilbao team by Jupp Heynckes in 1993 and went, on to make 118 La Liga appearances before joining Heynckes at Real Madrid in 1997. He made a further 93 league appearances and played 33 UEFA Champions League games for Real, including the final in 2000. In 2002 he returned to Athletic Bilbao, switching to Major League Soccer in 2006.

Karanka never really established himself as an international and only played once at senior level for Spain, on April 26, 1995 against Armenia, in an Euro 1996 qualifier in Yerevan. He did however play 14 games for Spain U-21s and was a member of the team that were runners-up at the European Championship in 1996. He also played for Spain at the 1996 Olympic Games. Between 1994 and 2004 he also played 6 times for the Euskadi XI.