On Thursday, Valdas Dambrauskas will walk out at Old Trafford as manager of Sabah in the Champions League. The Lithuanian's career will come full circle, some 20 years since he made his first steps into coaching with Manchester United Soccer Schools. "This is beyond my imagination," Dambrauskas told BBC Sport.
"To go through that tunnel on to that pitch. "I've been many times to Old Trafford with the kids, and now I'm going to come as a coach." This only scratches the surface of Dambrauskas' remarkable story. It begins with an appearance on the Lithuanian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Dambrauskas using his modest winnings to move to London and forge a career in football.
It is a tale of casual jobs, a determination to succeed and a nomadic coaching career across Europe - which now brings the 49-year-old back to England in the Champions League with the Azerbaijani club. As Sabah's players and staff celebrated reaching the Champions League two weeks ago, unbeknownst to Dambrauskas he was becoming a social media star. It all related to that appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2002.
Not because he was on the show, but how he spent the money he won. "This is so long ago," said Dambrauskas with a wry smile. "A back-in-the-year story that really was forgotten.
"And now suddenly everybody is speaking about this." Dambrauskas walked away with 4,000 litas (about £725). That might not sound like much, but it was six months' wages to the average Lithuanian. For Dambrauskas, the real story should be his career and not a gameshow.
"Everybody now takes only this part, you know, about the money," Dambrauskas said. "But yes, it is a true story. "My idea was somehow I will try to go on these [coaching] courses to gain the coaching badge, maybe go back one day to Lithuania and start to work as a football coach." What began with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? would map out his whole career.
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