Valdas Dambrauskas


Valdas Dambrauskas is a Lithuanian professional football manager who is the head coach of HNK Gorica in the Croatian First Football League.

Managerial career

Early career

Valdas Dambrauskas studied Sport Science and Coaching in London Metropolitan University and worked as a coach in many famous youth academies, including Fulham, Manchester United and Brentford. His first senior managerial position was with Kingsbury London Tigers in Spartan South Midlands Football League Premier Division, where he managed team to the highest result in club history. For his work Dambrauskas was awarded in Active Westminster Awards. He also was head coach of Lithuania national under-17 football team between 2009 and 2010.

Ekranas

In December 2010, Dambrauskas joined Lithuanian champions Ekranas as an assistant coach to famous Lithuanian coach Valdas Urbonas. Together they won domestic double in 2011 season, received Supercup and won A Lyga champions title in 2012 campaign, while also reaching domestic cup final, where they lost to Žalgiris after penalties, and also placed 3rd in 2013. After Urbonas resignation, he became head coach of the team and despite scarce resources managed to place sixth in 2014 season, even though this did not help the club, and it was forced to declared bankruptcy after the season had ended. He also managed Lithuania national under-19 football team between 2011 and 2012.

Žalgiris

On 17 December 2014, Valdas Dambrauskas became new head coach of Lithuanian champions Žalgiris. Together with the team he managed to win every domestic title until 2017, including domestic quadruple in 2016 season. Žalgiris' winning streak finally came to an end on 24 September 2017 when they lost Lithuanian Football Cup Final to Stumbras. After that defeat club's morale was broken and they not only haven't won a single game in the league, but also were overtaken by Sūduva after a dramatic 0–3 head-to-head defeat in Marijampolė. This was Žalgiris' first league defeat by 3 goals since 2010 season.
Due to these defeats Dambrauskas decided to resign on 23 October 2017.

RFS

Dambrauskas joined Latvian Higher League side RFS on 6 December 2017.

Gorica

Dambrauskas joined the Croatian First Football League side HNK Gorica on 25 February 2020.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Managerial