One of the best stories of the champions league this season is Sabah’s coach, Valdas Dambrauskas.
He is a born hustler. He lost his father at age 11, and was already hustling from a young age.
He actually won about $1,000 on “Who Wants to be a millionaire”. He took the money, applied to study Sports Science & Coaching at London Met University. That is where it all started.
What a story.
He is the first coach from the Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia) to take a team into the Champions league. He is also the first Lithuanian coach to earn a UEFA Coaching License from the English FA.
His story is quite amazing because, while studying in London, he worked in a pub, did newspaper delivery jobs, and so many other menial jobs to survive. He said his typical day would start from 3am, damn!
He is also a Manchester United fan, and tonight, he faced the team he supports😅
How did he become a Manchester United fan though?
During his time in England, he volunteered to coach at Manchester United soccer schools, for deprived Children, it was a big stepping stone for him.
Subsequently, he was given opportunity to be part of the youth coaches at Brentford and Fulham. He then coached a team in the 9th tier in England.
This guy has gone into the trenches, but realistically, he felt that his chances of landing a coaching job in England would be difficult.
Like I wrote about Mourinho today, the barrier to entry is harder for people who didn’t play professional football. To top it, he wasn’t English, his spoken English wasn’t that good either.
He moved back to Lithuania in 2010, 8 years after arriving in England, worked in youth football, assistant coach at Ekranas. He got his first head coach job 4 years after, at Zalgris.
He won two league titles and many cups in his 3 years at Zalgris. He moved to Latvia, went to Gorica in Croatia, Ludogrets in Bulgaria (he should have taken Ludogrets to the UCL but lost in the play offs), coached Hajduk Split in Croatia, Crete in Greece, Diosgyor in Hungary, and now Sabah in Azerbaijan.
He has just take a club that is less than 10 years old to the Champions League and played at the legendary Old Trafford tonight.
What a journey brethren.
Ladies and gentlemen, Valdas Dambrauskas.
As E Dey Be
Here to taste some part of 🇵🇱 Poland!
It’s touchdown in Warsaw for the 2026 U20 @FIFAWWC.
Kindly follow and engage with the little content I’ll be dropping along the way.
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🌍🇨🇮 Yaya Touré becomes tonight the first African coach in Champions League history at this stage of the competition.
History maker with his Slovan Bratislava.
@RealMrKay You can imagine how delusional she is, she is laughing while we have people dying due to fake medicine everywhere in Nigeria.
Sometimes, i wonder who we offended in Nigeria.
NAFDAC DG Adeyeye laughed after journalist told her Nigerians are calling for her resignation over fake drugs.
People are dying.
Lives are being destroyed.
Children are hospitalised.
Over the incompetence of NAFDAC.
But DG is laughing. What a country.