Dimi Konstantopoulos will do everything possible to achieve his dream of playing in the Premier League.
Less than three years ago, the Greek goalkeeper was searching for a club after leaving AEK Athens and keeping his reflexes sharp by training with former team Hartlepool.
Tony Mowbray ended up taking him to Boro where he was initially the third choice keeper and an extra pair of hands on the training ground.
But his fortunes took an upturn when Aitor Karanka took charge in November 2013. By the end of last season he was the established No1, a position he reclaimed from Tomas Mejias in September.
He signed a new deal last summer and earlier this year his contract was extended until the end of next season.
The opportunity to play in the Premier League three years after being out of work is a mouthwatering one admits Konstantopoulos, who says he would probably have returned to Hartlepool in the summer of 2013 if the League Two club had made him an offer.
“It would be fantastic,” he said. “There are thousands of players around the world that want to play in the Premier League so to be in this position and being able to try and achieve that is a great thing.
"I will do whatever I can to be able to achieve that.”
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Dimi Konstantopoulos celebrates a Boro goal
Boro are level on points with leaders Bournemouth going into today’s home clash with Ipswich and Konstantopoulos no doubt knows he’ll never have a better chance of playing top flight football in this country.
“It is a great opportunity,” he said. “Throughout my career I have always tried to push myself and better myself and tried to play with the best.
“It hasn’t always worked out that way but if you don’t try you don’t know how good you are.
“Being in this position is a great opportunity for me and all the lads to hopefully next season go up against the best players in the world.
“I am very excited and delighted to be at this club in this position. Hopefully we can carry on doing what we have been doing the whole season and finish where we want to finish at the end of the season.”
Konstantopoulos is certainly grateful that Boro gave him the chance to get his career back on track after his AEK Athens contract lapsed.
Looking back to the summer of 2013, he said: “I spent a couple of months looking for another club.
“I had offers to stay in Greece but I didn’t even want to talk about it because I’d been through a lot of bad situations there.
“I trained for about a week and half with Hartlepool before Middlesbrough came in and if they had actually offered me something I think I would have taken it at that point.
“I was looking for a chance to get back into English football and Boro gave me the chance which I knew I had to grab with both hands.
“It was ideal. My wife is from Hartlepool and given that how many clubs there are around England, getting a contract at Middlesbrough was ideal. I was really delighted and tried my hardest to stay here and it is working.”
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