Valdas Dambrauskas created a fairy tale with the Baku “Sabah” club that will be remembered for many years not only in Azerbaijan or Lithuania.
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The 49-year-old from Pakruojis coached football Cinderella’s leap into the Champions League elite and a telling youth story about investing money won on a TV game show into coaching studies, which resonated widely across Europe.
V. Dambrauskas is not the only Lithuanian coach to have made an impression abroad. We suggest recalling more achievements of our country’s sports specialists in foreign countries.
Valdas Ivanauskas
One of the best Lithuanian footballers of all time had many ambitions in his coaching role.
Having coached football teams in nine countries, V. Ivanauskas became most famous at the start of his coaching career when, at the age of 40, he took charge of Edinburgh “Hearts” and became the first foreigner to coach the legendary Scottish football team.
At that time, in the somewhat more reasonably managed Scottish club by Vladimir Romanov, the Lithuanian transferred from “Kaunas” was appointed interim coach but achieved unforgettable successes for Edinburgh.
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In 2006, the “Hearts” coached by V. Ivanauskas won the hearts of the city’s fans by winning the Scottish Cup and taking silver in the national championship.
Since then, the Scottish club with deep traditions has not experienced such a season, winning the cup only once (in 2012), and last season after a 20-year break, it again adorned itself with league silver.
The 2005-2006 season and the celebrations in Edinburgh were memorable for V. Ivanauskas but did not help him stay long in the coaching position – V. Romanov started rotating coaches, announcing at the beginning of the next season that V. Ivanauskas was stepping down due to health (stress) reasons. When his replacement Eduard Malofeyev was unsuccessful, V. Ivanauskas returned to “Hearts,” but was bid farewell the same season.
Jonas Kazlauskas
In Lithuanian basketball, he will long be among the most distinguished coaches due to the medals won with the Lithuanian national team and the EuroLeague title won with Kaunas “Žalgiris.” But even abroad, especially in Greece, basketball fans should not forget the Lithuanian, who is now 71 years old.
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