Founded 8 September 2017. At Old Trafford nine years later, almost to the day
Sabah FK will make their Champions League debut on Thursday, away to Manchester United. The club did not exist when Jose Mourinho was managing the hosts.
That makes them the third youngest side ever to reach this competition. FC Astana got there six years after being founded, RB Leipzig in eight. Sabah have done it in nine.
They are based in Masazir, started in the second division, and went up after rivals were ruled ineligible. Second in 2023. Third in 2024. Fifth in 2025, with an Azerbaijan Cup to soften it. Then everything changed.
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Eleven titles in 12 years for Qarabag, then Sabah showed up
Qarabag won the Azerbaijani league 11 times between 2014 and 2025. Last season Sabah finished nine points clear of them, and 19 clear of Turan Tovuz and Neftchi Baku. They took the cup as well.
The 2025/26 window did a lot of the work: Akim Zedadka, Zinedine Ould Khaled, Tymoteusz Puchacz and Aaron Malouda all signed. Malouda has since gone to FC Basel for 3 million euros, but the French-speaking core survived, with Youssef Lachaab on loan from Lille and Steve Solvet still around.
Two names carry the team. Joy-Lance Mickels, the Rwanda international, is the club’s record scorer on 72 goals. Puchacz has 2 goals and 17 assists in 44 games since arriving in summer 2025.
A game show, 1,158 euros, and a route into the Champions League
Valdas Dambrauskas, 49, won the Lithuanian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” His prize was 4,000 litas, roughly 1,158 euros. He used it to move to London and start coaching, funding himself with whatever work he could find: gardener, shop assistant, newspaper delivery, babysitting.
“I think this game show story is a little overblown. At times, it was tough. I had to work a lot and, sometimes, keep believing when I and those around me were doubting it,” he told EuroNews.
He coached youth teams at Fulham, Manchester United and Brentford. Two Lithuanian titles with Zalgiris in 2015 and 2016. A Bulgarian one with Ludogorets in 2021. Sabah signed him in 2025.
“It’s beyond my imagination. Walking through that tunnel to get out onto that pitch. I used to come to Old Trafford with the kids so many times, and now I’ll be going back there as a coach,” he told the BBC.
Getting here meant beating The New Saints, KuPS, Arhus and Hapoel Beer Sheva, that last one after extra time. Barcelona, Dortmund, Napoli and Arsenal are all still to come on the schedule.
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