From "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" to Champions League football, Dambrauskas has arrived
Lithuanian football coach Valdas Dambrauskas is going to lead Azerbaijani club Sabah FK in Europe’s elite competition (UEFA Champions League) in the 2026/27 season. This is Sabah’s debut in the Champions League as they came through the Champions League play-offs against Israeli club Hapoel Be’er Sheva, winning in extra-time in the second leg. Before that, they pipped 12-times champions Qaraba? FK to the league title. For a club that has only been formed nine years ago, this sounds crazy, no? And we are not even close. When it comes to crazy, their head-coach’s life story cannot be topped.
Valdas Dambrauskas had loved football since childhood. However, he could only play until the third tier of Lithuanian football but the football connection remained strong and the dream never faded. As a young engineering student in 2002, Dambrauskas appeared in the Lithuanian version of the popular game show ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’. Although he didn’t win the one million jackpot, he earned 4,000 Lithuanian litas (? £1000) and spent every single dime on enrolling at the London Metropolitan University, studying Sports Science and coaching there. From there on began his 25-year fairytale journey that has brought him to the UEFA Champions League.
Along with his studies in 2005, Dambrauskas started working with the youth academy at Manchester United. He also pursued a Masters degree at the Lithuanian Sports University before returning to England to start his coaching career. His first senior coaching position came in 2007/08 at ninth tier club Kingsbury London Tigers in the Spartan South Midlands Football League. He led them to their highest points finish that season. Between 2009 and 2010, Dambrauskas also coached the Lithuanian U-17 and U-18 National Team. He was also a youth coach for Brentford for a year until the end of 2010. After his tenure with Brentford ended, Dambrauskas went back to Lithuania to coach the U-19 National team for a year in 2011.
While coaching the Lithuanian U-19 National team, he also became an assistant coach for Lithuanian champions Ekranas where success came in the form of a domestic double in 2011. He became the head coach in Feb 2013 but couldn’t continue when the club declared bankruptcy at the end of the 2013/14 season. Dambrauskas then moved to the Lithuanian champions Žalgiris in December 2014. He had a particularly successful stint there as they won consecutive league titles until 2017 including a domestic quadruple in 2016. Following poor performances after the 2016/17 season, Dambrauskas resigned from his position in October 2017.
The Lithuanian coach moved through several clubs in the European lower leagues after that. He coached Latvian Higher League side RFS (2017-2020), Croatian First Football League club HNK Gorica (2020-2021), Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad (2021), Croatian First Football league club HNK Hadjuk Split (2021-2022), Greece Super League club OFI Crete (2022-2023), Cypriot First Division club Omonia Nicosia (2024) and Hungarian club Diósgy?r (early 2025) before arriving at his present club Sabah FK in July 2025 on a three-year contract.
(P.S. The timeline details have been taken from transfermarkt link – https://www.transfermarkt.co.in/valdas-dambrauskas/profil/trainer/19743 )
In his first season itself, he led Sabah FK to their first Azerbaijani Premier League title and also winning the Azerbaijani Cup, completing a domestic double. They topped the league table with 78 points in 33 league games with 24 wins, six draws and only three defeats the entire season. This enabled them to qualify for the first Champions League qualifying round where they defeated Israeli club Hapoel Be’er Sheva to qualify for their first-ever Champions League main draw. While the team deserves a lot of credit for performing on the pitch, the contribution of the coaching staff can never be undermined. They are the ones that work hard behind the scenes continuously to help with the tactics, style of play and making tweaks or impactful substitutions when Plan A doesn’t work.
It’s been a long journey for the 49-year-old Lithuanian coach to compete against Europe’s elite at the one of the grandest stages but Dambrauskas has surely arrived. Sabah FK will be playing at iconic footballing venues and pitting their wits against the best players and clubs in the world, an experience for the ages, that will only help their development and improvement.
Securing a domestic double and becoming only the second club from Azerbaijan to qualify for the UEFA Champions League is already a massive achievement with a new club in his very first season but to go one step higher and compete against European heavyweights is the stuff of dreams for any aspiring football coach.
Dambrauskas’ crazy back story is proof that if we have a dream and we persevere, the Universe has its own strange and mysterious ways to make it happen. His journey to football coaching may not have been straightforward and filled with many obstacles but Dambrauskas has definitely reached where he wants to be.
Along with his abilities as a top football coach, Dambrauskas is known to be an avid Chess player and also participated in the Lithuanian rapid chess Championship. Winning ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ may have changed his life but it would be interesting to see how he manages in the Champions League hot seat with his critical thinking and decision making against Europe’s elite.
