15min already wrote about the special journey of V. Dambrauskas, which began in 2002 when he won 4,000 litas in the game “Six zeros million” and invested it in coaching courses in England.
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Soon, then only 25-year-old from Pakruojis started coaching a ninth-tier English league club, and having ignited his career, he eventually became the best football coach in the country.
After progressing through the stages in Lithuanian youth national teams, Panevėžys “Ekranas” and Vilnius “Žalgiris”, V. Dambrauskas began his career abroad and now coaches a team in the seventh different foreign country.
It is precisely there that the 49-year-old specialist achieved the greatest success. Last season, with the “Sabah” club founded only in 2017, winning the Azerbaijan championship and the national cup, this week V. Dambrauskas led the Baku club to the Champions League – the most prestigious European football tournament, featuring 36 clubs.
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The draw on Thursday determined that the Lithuanian will fulfill his dream facing a bunch of continental giants – “Barcelona”, “Borussia Dortmund”, “Napoli” and “Slavia Prague” will visit the Azerbaijani capital, while V. Dambrauskas’ own pupils will travel for away matches against “Arsenal London”, “Manchester United”, “Villarreal” and “Viking Stavanger”.
The impressive achievement of V. Dambrauskas did not go unnoticed by A. Valinskas, who recalled the football coach who participated in the quiz he led a quarter of a century ago in the 15min podcast “VALINSKAS KNOWS”.
