The conversation with Valdas Dambrauskas starts with an apology.The 49-year-old head coach has just led Sabah FK of Azerbaijan to the league phase of the Champions League. On Thursday, he will lead his team out against Manchester United at Old Trafford.The historic achievement is not the first topic of conversation, but rather a television appearance from 24 years ago. In 2002, he was a contestant on Sesi nuliai — milijonas (Six Zeros — A Million), a Lithuanian game show based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?“In the past two weeks I have been asked about this a million times,” Dambrauskas laughs when recalling his TV appearance, which went viral on social media after Sabah’s qualification. “It is like a Hollywood movie when they try to condense a life story.”That TV appearance was a defining career moment. Aged 25 at the time, his playing career in football had not gone beyond the non-professional third tier of his native country. “My dream since childhood had been to become a football coach, but UEFA coaching badges did not exist then. If you were not a high-profile player, it was almost impossible.”Dambrauskas formed a plan. He would travel to London, undergo a coaching course, improve his English and launch a long-term career path. However, he needed money. His TV appearance won 4,000 litas (the former Lithuanian currency, replaced in 2015 by the euro, converting into £725, $1,300). The winnings were the equivalent of six months’ wages for the average Lithuanian, and funded Dambrauskas’ move to London that summer.“It was really hard,” Dambrauskas recalls of those first years in England. He travelled with Ingrida, his then girlfriend, now wife. “We arrived without contacts, without help, without riches, with broken English. A massive challenge.” The couple settled in north London, their home for almost a decade and the birthplace of their two children.“We had to take all sorts of odd jobs that came our way. At any one time, we would have four or five of them. On top of that, I was studying full time at university, volunteering at local football clubs and helping to raise our family.”At various points, Dambrauskas worked as a handyman, in retail, in a nursery school, cleaning the floors of a local pub, delivering newspapers, as a private childminder and in sports development roles — often combining several of them at once. The money helped fund his university degree and coaching courses, while the time commuting between jobs was spent studying. He gained first-class honours in sports science and coaching at London Metropolitan University.“It was a big challenge, but this is what we had expected. We were grateful for the life we had and the opportunities it created. Moving to England was the best possible move.”