From Winning £700 on a Game Show to Becoming a Champions League Coach, He Returns to Old Trafford

Sabah head coach Valdas Dambrauskas is set to complete a journey from a game show contestant to a Champions League manager. This Thursday Beijing time, he will lead his team away against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

A nine-year-old club reaches the Champions League stage

Sabah, an Azerbaijani club founded only nine years ago, has now reached the Champions League league phase for the first time. Speaking to reporters in Manchester, Dambrauskas said: "The level we have reached has sometimes exceeded our imagination." He also said that Sabah is the youngest club to enter the Champions League.

"We are only nine years old. We have never qualified for the Conference League, never qualified for the Europa League, and in the past few years we had never passed two rounds in a row. Now suddenly we are in the Champions League." Dambrauskas compared the achievement to climbing a building: "Imagine you arrive at a 12-story building with no elevator, and you can only use the stairs. You cannot jump directly from the first floor to the fifth floor; you have to go through the second and third floors. But somehow, we entered the building and put ourselves at the very top."

£700 sets him on the coaching path

Dambrauskas' coaching journey is connected with Manchester United. More than 20 years ago, he got his first coaching job at the Manchester United Soccer School. In 2002, at the age of 25, he took part in the television game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in Lithuania, won more than £700, and used the money to fund his initial coaching courses.

He later moved to England with his wife and children and studied sports science at London Metropolitan University.

"I came a long time ago, in 2002, and my first coaching job was at the Manchester United Soccer School," he said. "Maybe it was not at Old Trafford, but it had the Manchester United name and badge, and I was proud of that. Now I am going to lead a very young club as a head coach to play in the Champions League."