How quiz-show winnings kick-started coach's career - with Old Trafford next — SkimNews
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- Valdas Dambrauskas used £725 (4,000 litas) won on the 2002 Lithuanian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? — roughly six months' average wages — to fund a move to London and pursue a coaching career he had wanted since age 12.
- Dambrauskas spent eight years in England juggling up to four jobs at a time — gardener, handyman, newspaper rounds, pub floor polisher — while coaching at London Tigers and becoming the first Lithuanian to earn a Uefa coaching licence through the London Football Association.
- Dambrauskas began his professional pathway at Manchester United Soccer Schools in 2004 after three or four interviews with foundation chief executive John Shiels, calling it 'the best thing that could happen in my life'.
- Across 10 clubs in seven countries since 2010, Dambrauskas has collected 13 trophies in five nations — including two league titles at Zalgiris Vilnius, one at Ludogorets Razgrad, and the Croatian Cup with Hajduk Split.
- Sabah, founded in 2017 and based in the Azerbaijani town of Masazir (population 19,000), became the only club to reach the Champions League group stage from the first qualifying round, beating TNS, KuPS, Aarhus and Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
- Sabah's group-stage draw pits them against Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Napoli and Villarreal, with a January trip to Arsenal awaiting — a fixture Dambrauskas called fate, having studied at London Metropolitan University overlooking Emirates Stadium.
Why it matters: Sabah, formed in 2017 and based in a 19,000-person Azerbaijani town, becoming the only club to reach the Champions League group stage from the first qualifying round is the payoff of Dambrauskas's 20-year grind — the same coach who once polished pub floors to make rent now manages Barcelona, Dortmund and Napoli visits from a dugout at Old Trafford.
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