Сабах клубын дасгалжуулагч Валдас Дамбраускас Аваргуудын лигийн хүрээнд Манчестер Юнайтедтай Олд Траффорд цэнгэлдэхэд тулалдахаар бэлтгэж байна.
Литов дасгалжуулагч Валдас Дамбраускас Сабахыг Аваргуудын лигийн үндсэн шатанд шалгаруулж, түүхэн амжилт үзүүллээ. Тэрээр 2002 онд телевизийн нэвтрүүлэгт оролцож хожсон 4,000 литасаа Лондон руу нүүж, дасгалжуулагчийн боловсрол эзэмшихэд зарцуулж байсан түүхтэй. Англид байх хугацаандаа тэрээр цэвэрлэгч, ажилчин зэрэг олон төрлийн ажил хийж, Лондоны Метрополитан их сургуульд спортын шинжлэх ухааны чиглэлээр онц дүнтэй суралцан төгсчээ.
Дамбраускас дасгалжуулагчийн гараагаа Манчестер Юнайтедын хөлбөмбөгийн сургуулиас эхлүүлж, улмаар Фулхэм, Брентфорд зэрэг клубүүдэд ажилласан байна. Тэрээр 2023 онд Азербайжаны Сабах клубтэй холбогдож, багийн бүтэц, хөгжлийн хөтөлбөрийг нь өндрөөр үнэлэн ажиллах саналыг хүлээж авчээ. Өнгөрсөн улиралд тус баг дотоодын лиг болон цомын тэмцээнд түрүүлж, 33 тоглолт дараалан хожигдоогүй амжилтаар Карабахын ноёрхлыг зогсоосон юм.
Аваргуудын лигийн эрх олгох тоглолтуудад Сабах ТНС, КуПС, Орхус болон Хапоэль Беер-Шева багуудыг буулган авсан. Ялангуяа Хапоэль Беер-Шеватай хийсэн тоглолтын нэмэлт цагийн дөрөв дэх минутад Теллур Муталлимов гоол оруулж, багтаа ялалт авчирсан нь тус клубийн түүхэн дэх чухал мөчүүдийн нэг байлаа. Дамбраускас одоогоор таван өөр улсын лиг, цомын 13 цомыг хүртээд байгаа бөгөөд Манчестер Юнайтедтай хийх тоглолт нь түүний карьерын онцлох үйл явдал болох юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The conversation with Valdas Dambrauskas starts with an apology.
The 49-year-old head coach has just led Sabah FK of Azerbaijan to the league phase of the Champions League. On Thursday, he will lead his team out against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The historic achievement is not the first topic of conversation, but rather a television appearance from 24 years ago. In 2002, he was a contestant on Sesi nuliai — milijonas (Six Zeros — A Million), a Lithuanian game show based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
“In the past two weeks I have been asked about this a million times,” Dambrauskas laughs when recalling his TV appearance, which went viral on social media after Sabah’s qualification. “It is like a Hollywood movie when they try to condense a life story.”
That TV appearance was a defining career moment. Aged 25 at the time, his playing career in football had not gone beyond the non-professional third tier of his native country. “My dream since childhood had been to become a football coach, but UEFA coaching badges did not exist then. If you were not a high-profile player, it was almost impossible.”
Dambrauskas formed a plan. He would travel to London, undergo a coaching course, improve his English and launch a long-term career path. However, he needed money. His TV appearance won 4,000 litas (the former Lithuanian currency, replaced in 2015 by the euro, converting into £725, $1,300). The winnings were the equivalent of six months’ wages for the average Lithuanian, and funded Dambrauskas’ move to London that summer.
“It was really hard,” Dambrauskas recalls of those first years in England. He travelled with Ingrida, his then girlfriend, now wife. “We arrived without contacts, without help, without riches, with broken English. A massive challenge.” The couple settled in north London, their home for almost a decade and the birthplace of their two children.
“We had to take all sorts of odd jobs that came our way. At any one time, we would have four or five of them. On top of that, I was studying full time at university, volunteering at local football clubs and helping to raise our family.”
At various points, Dambrauskas worked as a handyman, in retail, in a nursery school, cleaning the floors of a local pub, delivering newspapers, as a private childminder and in sports development roles — often combining several of them at once. The money helped fund his university degree and coaching courses, while the time commuting between jobs was spent studying. He gained first-class honours in sports science and coaching at London Metropolitan University.
“It was a big challenge, but this is what we had expected. We were grateful for the life we had and the opportunities it created. Moving to England was the best possible move.”
His first break came at Manchester United Soccer Schools in 2004, before spells in London with Fulham and then Brentford. His first managerial role was at Kingsbury London Tigers, a semi-professional side, managing them in the FA Cup preliminary rounds. They are a community-focused club, known for their diverse mix of players.
“It was common for that team to field 11 different nationalities. It was eye-opening for me; I learned about so many different cultures, languages and backgrounds.”
When Sabah defeated Hapoel Beer-Sheva of Israel to qualify for the Champions League, Dambrauskas’ side started the match with 11 players with 11 different nationalities.
Dambrauskas and his family returned to Lithuania at the end of 2010. He was appointed assistant first-team coach and reserve manager of domestic champions Ekranas, while coaching Lithuania at under-17 and later under-19 level. By 2014, he was viewed as the rising star in local coaching and was appointed head coach of Zalgiris, the nation’s biggest and most successful club. Eight trophies, including two league titles, were delivered in three years.
Fast-forward to 2026, and Dambrauskas has delivered 13 trophies across five nations: including league titles in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, domestic cup titles in Latvia and Croatia, plus separate spells at clubs in Greece, Cyprus and Hungary. He had used the iconic Champions League theme music as his personal ringtone, but coaching in the main stage of Europe’s premier club competition had previously eluded him.
Valdas Dambrauskas during his time in charge of Bulgaria’s Ludogorets, in 2021 (Nikolay Doychinov/AFP via Getty Images)
He first established contact with Sabah FK of Azerbaijan in 2023. “They surprised me: they knew exactly what they wanted, they were very ambitious, they talked through the building of a new training complex and scouting system. The potential was obvious.”
Dambrauskas instead chose a job offer to manage Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia, but stayed in contact with Sabah’s sporting director Ramin Hasanov. “What started as a professional introduction grew into a very strong relationship. We were texting each other almost every day, talking about football.”
Last summer, Dambrauskas accepted Sabah’s fresh approach. The season was an unprecedented success: Sabah won their first league title as part of a domestic league-and-cup double, going 33 matches undefeated. In the process, they ended the domestic hegemony of Qarabag, the club that had won 11 of the previous 12 league titles and that reached the play-off phase for the Champions League knockout stage. Qarabag’s success was historic for Azerbaijani football, but the toll of a European campaign contributed to them finishing nine points behind Sabah.
Sabah are based in Masazir, 15 km northwest of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. They are the first club to reach the Champions League knockout phase with pink as one of their primary club colours (the club’s nickname is the Pink-Blacks), due to the nearby Lake Masazir’s distinctive pink colouring.
The club was created in 2017, three years after the ‘Sabah groups’ were formed by Azerbaijan’s education ministry; a project aimed at “improving the quality of teaching in higher education and applying innovative teaching methods in education”. Firudin Gurbanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy minister of education, forms part of Sabah’s board, which is headed by real estate magnate Yagub Huseynov.
Under Dambrauskas, they have become Azerbaijan champions and their run to the Champions League included victories against Welsh club TNS, KuPS of Finland, Denmark’s Aarhus and Hapoel Beer-Sheva. Due to their lack of European pedigree, Sabah were unseeded in each game. The win over Hapoel was particularly dramatic, with Sabah’s Tellur Mutallimov rescuing the tie in the fourth minute of stoppage time at the end of the second leg as Sabah went on to win in extra time.
Sabah players celebrate scoring against Hapoel Beer-Sheva in the play-off second leg (Aziz Karimov/Getty Images)
“Coaching in the Champions League for someone coming not from a football background is a massive achievement,” Dambrauskas says. “However, every milestone is very special for me, and each achievement brings a lot of responsibility too.
“I am looking forward to this experience but I have more dreams to follow.”
For Dambrauskas, managing against Manchester United — where he gained some of his formative coaching experience — will see his career come full circle. It has also brought more questions about that TV appearance that was his starting point.
“It was a very complicated show and it had so many questions,” he recalls with a rueful smile.
“The one I did not know was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor and to receive the first Oscar in 1929! If that question ever comes up again, his name is stuck in my mind forever… Emil Jannings!”
