Karanka, a former defender at Ahtletic Bilbao (1993-1997 and 2002-2006), Real Madrid (1997-2002) and MLS outfit Colorado Rapids (2006) also represented Spain’s national teams at U21, U23 and senior levels.

Following his retirement as a player he was appointed in 2008 as Spain U16 coach and two years later he joined Real Madrid and worked for three years as Jose Mourinho’s assistant.

In November 2013 Karanka was appointed as manager of Championship outfit Middlesbrough before guiding the Riverside Club to the promotion Playoff Final. After four years at Middleborough during which he helped M’boro win promotion to the Premier League (2015/16), Karanka had spells at Nottingham Forrest (2018/19), Birmingham City (2020/21), and La Liga side Granada (2022).

A product of AZ Alkmaar youth’s department, Luckassen made his senior league debut for AZ at the age of 19 against Dordrecht in August 2014. Two seasons later (2016/17) Luckassen featured for AZ in the two Europa League matches against Maccabi 0-0 at Netanya and 2-1 at the Afas stadion. In July 2017 PSV Eindhoven bought Luckassen from AZ but after 25 appearances in all competitions during his first season spent loan spells with Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin (2018/19) and Belgian outfit Anderlecht (2019/20).

In January 2021, Luckassen joined Turkish outfit Kasimpasa on a six month long loan spell and made 17 appearances for the Istanbul club. In the summer, Luckassen returned to Turkey and joined Fatih Karagumrk last season, where he made 21 appearances scoring 1 goal for the Istanbul club that finished 8^th in the table.

Luckassen represented the young Dutch national sides at U-18, U-19, U-20 and U-21’s and has a total of 19 international appearances.