Valdas Dambrauskas, the 49-year-old Lithuanian manager of Azerbaijani club Sabah, will lead his side out at Old Trafford in the Champions League on Thursday, some two decades after his coaching career began there with the Manchester United Soccer Schools. His journey to this point began in 2002 when he appeared on the Lithuanian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and used his modest winnings to move to London, embarking on a long, hard-won path through grassroots and semi-professional football that has now brought him back to England on one of the sport's biggest stages.

Dambrauskas won 4,000 litas (about £725) on the quiz show, roughly six months' wages for an average Lithuanian at the time, and used it to fund a student visa move to London aged 25 with limited English. Over the following years he studied sports science and coaching at London Metropolitan University, volunteered with community projects in Finsbury Park, and rose through non-league side London Tigers to manage their first team, becoming the first Lithuanian to gain a Uefa coaching licence via the London FA. His break came in 2004 with Manchester United Soccer Schools, where he spent five years coaching before a nomadic European career eventually led him to Sabah and this week's Champions League tie against Manchester United, with a game against Arsenal also on the horizon.