‘That’s how it began’: Dambrauskas’ journey from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to Champions League
V aldas Dambrauskas can rattle the concerns and responses without a minute’s time out. Who won the very first Academy Award for finest star in 1929? It was Emil Jannings, even if another person may have been lured to opt forCharlie Chaplin Which nation releases the greatest variety of everyday papers? India was the clear winner. Can you call the country that produces one of the most electrical power per capita worldwide? His household, viewing back home, clasped heads in hands however he was right: at that time, in 2002, the response was his native Lithuania.
It sufficed to win Dambrauskas about ₤ 725 in his look on Six Zeros– A Million, the Lithuanian variation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “At that time it was rather huge cash,” he states. “I might have purchased a flat in my home town; it was an extremely tough duration there and they were nearly complimentary. But my strategy was to go to England and follow my dream to end up being a coach, which’s how it began.”
More than 2 and a half years later the story continues at Old Trafford where Dambrauskas will handle the Azerbaijani champs, Sabah, in their Champions League launching on Thursday night. The club’s journey is some tale in itself offered Sabah, who came through a remarkable playoff with Hapoel Be’ er Sheva, did not exist up until 2017. But the course taken by their head coach, a 25-year-old workplace employee with just a modest football background when his basic understanding abilities were placed on screen, is essentially unequaled in the contemporary video game.
The cash he won assisted Dambrauskas and his sweetheart, now spouse, to transfer to north London and develop themselves in an alien environment. “I would have done it anyhow– the program can be found in the middle of our preparation,” he states of the relocation, which ended up being an aspiration after a work check out to Norway in 2000.
In Scandinavia he had actually comprehended the level of the Premier League’s incipient appeal. “I understood this was where genuine football is. There was no path to training in Lithuania if you had not been a gamer; it was difficult. But if I might take a course in England, perhaps I might get a possibility to step on the ladder in your home.”
Dambrauskas invested 8 years inLondon “The start was really, really tough. I wasn’t speaking good English, had no contacts, we didn’t understand anybody, we resided in various locations, did all sort of tasks.” He operated in a Muswell Hill club, provided papers in the location, held down tasks in a nursery school, as a garden enthusiast, in sales, and as a self-employed handyman, typically at the same time. The hours were ruthless however so was the boy’s focus.
It was a life of an immigrant couple straining every sinew to make their method. Their initially kid was born in 2004; already Dambrauskas, who had actually studied viewpoint and social sciences in Lithuania, had actually registered on a sports science and training course atLondon Metropolitan University From his class on the 10th flooring he might see the Emirates Stadium growing up throughout that spell of Arsenal invincibility.
The Access to Sports Project, based in Finsbury Park, is a stone’s toss from Arsenal however galaxies away in another sense. It is where Dambrauskas landed his very first training function, offering sessions to kids on Saturday early mornings and throughout school vacations. His next action is even more impressive for what has actually passed because. A round of interviews with Manchester United Soccer Schools brought the opportunity to deal with children around the nation, and in some cases on domestic journeys abroad, under the banner of the then serial title winners. Despite the name it was a far cry from even academy football, however the injection of self-confidence was transformative.
“It was John Shiels, CEO of the Manchester United Foundation, who offered me the opportunity. I do not understand what he saw in me– I can be found in with really damaged English and could not reveal myself as I can now– however he actually supported me. At completion of the year he composed me an appraisal of what I ‘d done. He stated that I was excellent and might do a lot more. It was an enormous, huge increase for me.”
Through a buddy at university, Dambrauskas ended up being included with the neighborhood sports organisationLondon Tigers “He informed me they constantly required coaches.” Eventually he organized their semi-professional group, which played in theSpartan South Midlands League “That was where it actually began, training at some sort of level.” It implied handling in the FA Vase and the early rounds of the FA Cup.
Dambrauskas likewise carried out part-time functions at Fulham and Brentford before working as a sports activator for Central YMCA onTottenham Court Road He would later on take a more comprehensive function as sports advancement supervisor at London Tigers and took his training badges at theLondon Football Association “It was a time without any vacations, no day of rests. I’m a huge reader, I check out all the time and studied continuously. Sometimes I would complete my university deal with the bus. I took every sort of education I might and went to every possible course for each conference.
“Over the years I had many interviews for training functions, for tasks at centres of excellency in London and outdoors, numerous CVs and applications, however I comprehended early on that it’s really tough in England to get on the ladder which to coach at expert level there was most likely difficult. If there is a story where somebody is beginning in the neighborhood plan and going all the method to end up being a head coach, I am still to discover it.”
By late 2010 he felt prepared to pursue what had actually initially been completion objective: a function inLithuania He had actually begun dealing with their under-17s and consented to sign up with Ekranas, nationwide champs at the time, as assistant supervisor. “I had the London Tigers task, 15 hours a week at Brentford and some other things occasionally. We had an excellent life and individuals believed I was insane returning home and making about a fifth of what I was getting inEngland But the most significant danger in life is not to take threats.
” I’m permanently grateful to my spouse for lagging me. We constantly dealt with concerns: twenty- or thirtysomething guy constantly studying, attempting to operate in football, investing all his cash on books and courses instead of purchasing a home or something for the household. But I’m really pleased with how it ended up and no one concerns those choices now.”
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A kaleidoscopic profession flowered. By December 2014 he had actually ended up being head coach at Zalgiris Vilnius, the most significant club in Lithuania, winning 2 more league titles and different cups in a relocation that felt unimaginable throughout a modest training in the small northern townPakruojis “My youth was not a present. My daddy passed away when I was 11, and if he understood that I had the task at Zalgiris which we won numerous prizes he would be the happiest individual worldwide.”
Dambrauskas was not content to stop there. “You are generally no one and unexpectedly you get this task. Then you need to show yourself to everyone once again and once again and once again. So you reached this action on the ladder however what’s next? How do you go to the next level?”
After 3 years he signed up with the upwardly mobile Latvian club RFS however harboured issues about the potential customers of leaving the little Baltic football bubble. In the occasion he need not have actually stressed. Since 2020 he has actually handled in Croatia with Gorica and Hajduk Split– the latter are “like a tattoo you can’t ever get, it leaves a mark on you”– in Bulgaria with Ludogorets, in Greece with OFI Crete, in Cyprus with Omonia and with the Hungarian club Diosgyor, who he refers to as having “among the most significant concealed football capacities in Europe”.
Itinerant profession courses such as that are, specifically in eastern and southern Europe, absolutely nothing brand-new. But Sabah had actually been courting Dambrauskas for 2 years before he took control of in 2025. Once the stars had actually lined up, he worked a wonder. In 2024-25, Sabah had actually ended up 41 points behind the most significant club in Azerbaijan,Qarabag Last season Sabah beat them to the title by 9 points, making their fracture at the Champions League qualifiers. “I’m actually grateful toQarabag Every video game versus them resembles taking a master’s degree.”
He waxes lyrical about the stability and centers offered at well-backed Sabah, who were cheered on with fervour befitting a nationwide group when they thrillingly got rid of an injury-time deficit versus Be’ erSheva Their success has actually included an international team that plays vibrant, front-foot football in the design he preaches. “But if you do not comprehend the human remaining in front of you, it’s really tough to pass him your concepts and develop trust,” he states.
“What is necessary in east Africa can be entirely various from what somebody requires in west Africa or anywhere throughoutEurope You require to be able to comprehend various cultures, various customs, various methods of speaking or acting. Without that it’s difficult to do anything, and I think this is where my strength lies.”
It is a marvelous piece of circularity that Dambrauskas and Sabah will be enjoyed from the stands on Thursday by a variety of his old associates fromManchester United Soccer Schools He beams at the idea; none of this might have appeared from another location obtainable throughout their time on the yard together. “But I had this belief. I had this self-confidence all the time that I might do it.”
He is similarly pleased that the draw has also brought a January visit to Arsenal, that big existence in his eyeline throughout those years studying onHolloway Road He is 49 and would definitely lever himself amongst Europe’s most in-demand training homes if he can take Sabah even more. “We’re going to regard everybody however not hesitate of anybody. There’s an extremely good tune by the Lithuanian band Colours of Bubbles called Truth orDare Very quickly we’re going to discover the fact about ourselves and what we can do. It will be really advantageous for us since I do not desire this club to be a one-day marvel.” As last responses go, it might be his most considerable yet.
