The story behind the Champions League’s youngest club

By Dorian MelwinCHENNAI: After an agonizing three-year wait, Manchester United will finally make their return to the Champions League when they play against Azerbaijani side Sabah FK. The Red Devils have faced constant disappointment on the European stage ever since their Europa League triumph in 2017. However, when United lifted the trophy on that cold May night in Stockholm, their future opponents Sabah didn’t even exist.Most Azerbaijani clubs are backed by large, multinational conglomerates and Sabah is no different. The club was founded in September 2017 by Yagub Huseynov, chairman of construction conglomerate Bridge Group. The name Sabah means tomorrow in the local Azeri language. However, it is also used figuratively to denote the future. It is rather apt that Sabah was chosen as the name of the club, given the club’s rapid rise.The club entered into the Azerbaijani second division for the 2017-18 season, finishing a respectable 5th in their first season. But in an incredible turn of events, Khazar Baku, who finished 1st in the league, were denied promotion. Three clubs that finished behind Khazar either failed to get the licence for promotion or outright denied it, meaning that Sabah were promoted in their first ever season despite earning 10 points less than the league champions.In their first top-flight campaign, Sabah finished seventh out of eight teams after a disastrous second half of the season. Sabah followed that with a sixth place finish in the 2019-20 season, finishing two points behind the Europa League spots. Two fifth place finishes would follow in subsequent seasons before Sabah finally achieved European qualification in the 2022-23 season, qualifying for the Conference League after finishing second in the league, nine points behind local giants Qarabag.After a third place finish in the 2023-24 season, Sabah would fall back down to fifth in the 2024-25 season. However, the club would also win their first piece of silverware when they won the Azerbaijan Cup. They beat Qarabag 3-2 in the final after Jamaican winger Kaheem Parris converted a penalty to equalize in the seventh minute of added time, taking the game to extra time where winger Tellur Mutallimov scored the winner in the 119th minute.Ahead of the 2025-26 season, Sabah appointed Lithuanian Valdas Dambrauskas as manager. Dambrauskas’s journey is also noteworthy. At the age of 25, Dambrauskas appeared in Lithuania’s version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’, where he won 4000 litas. He used this money to move to England, beginning his coaching journey in the lower tiers of English football before travelling around Europe, winning titles in Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Croatia.Sabah only lost three out of 33 matches to win their maiden Azerbaijan Premier League title, finishing nine points ahead of Qarabag. They also won the Azerbaijan Cup for the second year running, with Rwandan winger Joy-Lance Mickels scoring in added time to beat Zira 2-1, securing a league and cup double in the process.Sabah’s earlier European campaigns were unremarkable, getting knocked out in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League on every occasion. They started their UCL campaign in the first qualifying round, making light work of Welsh side The New Saints by beating them 4-1 on aggregate. After a 3-0 aggregate win over Finnish side KuPS, Sabah caught the global spotlight when they beat Danish champions Aarhus 5-2 on aggregate, setting up a playoff round clash with Israeli champions Hapoel Be’er Sheva.The first leg ended in favour of the Israelis, who beat Sabah 2-1 at a neutral ground in Bucharest. In the second leg, Be’er Sheva scored twice to lead 4-2 on aggregate before Sabah clawed their way back into the game, scoring in the 74thminute before Mutallimov scored in the 4thminute of added time to take the game to extra time. Sabah scored twice in extra time to become the youngest club to qualify for the league phase of the Champions League.For their efforts, Sabah have been handed an extremely tough draw. Apart from the aforementioned away tie against United, the club have been handed glamour ties at home against 5-time UCL champions Barcelona, German giants Borussia Dortmund and Italian heavyweights Napoli. Sabah will end their league phase campaign with an away game against Premier League champions Arsenal.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.