Old Trafford: On Thursday, Valdas Dambrauskas will walk out at Old Trafford as manager of Sabah in the Champions League. The Lithuanian's career will come full circle, some 20 years since he made his first steps into coaching with Manchester United Soccer Schools. "This is beyond my imagination," Dambrauskas told BBC Sport. "To go through that tunnel on to that pitch. I've been many times to Old Trafford with the kids, and now I'm going to come as a coach."
According to BBC, Dambrauskas' remarkable story begins with an appearance on the Lithuanian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, where he used his modest £725 winnings to move to London and forge a career in football. It is a tale of casual jobs, a determination to succeed, and a nomadic coaching career across Europe, which now brings the 49-year-old back to England in the Champions League with the Azerbaijani club.
As Sabah's players and staff celebrated reaching the Champions League two weeks ago, unbeknownst to Dambrauskas, he was becoming a social media star. It all related to that appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2002. Not because he was on the show, but for how he spent the money he won. Dambrauskas walked away with 4,000 litas (about £725), a sum equivalent to six months' wages for the average Lithuanian at the time.
Dambrauskas had known since the age of 12 that he would not make it as a player, but coaching would keep him close to football. He arrived in London in August 2002 at the age of 25 on a student visa with limited English. What followed were eight years of hard work where he coached for community projects, at a semi-professional club, within professional youth programmes, and held down multiple jobs while raising two children.
In 2004, he enrolled on a course in sports science and coaching at London Metropolitan University and began volunteering with the Access to Sports Project for deprived children in Finsbury Park. He progressed to manage the first team in non-league football, while also becoming the first Lithuanian to achieve a Uefa coaching licence through the London Football Association.
His first break at a professional club came when Manchester United Soccer Schools took a chance on him in 2004. Dambrauskas spent five years coaching on residential courses in the UK and in Europe. After a short spell with Fulham, he moved to Brentford, where academy director Ose Aibangee became one of the biggest influences on his career.
Dambrauskas' journey continued as he worked with various clubs across Europe, achieving significant success. He won league titles and cups in Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Azerbaijan, culminating in Sabah's historic qualification for the Champions League. Sabah, a club formed in 2017, now faces a challenging group with matches against Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Napoli, and Villarreal.
Dambrauskas is eager to prove his mettle on the grand stage. "You dream for this, to play in this competition, to play against those teams," he said. Sabah president Magsud Adigozalov praised Dambrauskas for instilling a winning mentality in the team, a testament to his influence beyond tactics.
Twenty years after dreaming of standing in a dugout at Old Trafford, Dambrauskas will return to where it all began. His story, from a £725 game show win to the Champions League, is a testament to perseverance, ambition, and an unwavering love for football.