I’m playing real-life Football Manager!
Amazing tale of the 30-year-old Englishman who cut his teeth on a video game... and is now plotting how to stop Messi and Mbappe
IN a side room at the training base of Stade de Reims, there is a seat reserved for the boss. a red leather racing chair. It is rather flash. Near the headrest, a crown sits atop Reims’ crest. Not quite Will Still’s flavour but last month these flatlands in northeast France became his domain.
Now his inbox is brimming with praise. Trips to the supermarket are interrupted by well-wishers. Recently, a referee shook his hand and said: ‘ What you’re doing is unbelievable.’ Lille manager Paulo Fonseca was similarly gushing.
‘You get a little tingle,’ admits Still. ‘ I’d rather people just consider me normal.’ He pauses. ‘But I do realise it can come across as completely stupid.’
Totally bonkers. This 30-year-old Englishman — who grew up in Belgium, cut his teeth on Football Manager, and became a head coach at 24 — is the youngest manager in Europe’s top leagues. ‘Ridiculous really,’ says Still.
Many long nights at the computer were spent alongside brother Ed, 32, now a head coach himself. In 2021, they sat in opposite dugouts in the Belgian top flight.
across the border, since Still took temporary charge of struggling Reims in October, Europe’s youngest team are unbeaten. That record- breaking start earned him the full-time gig, at some expense. While the 30-year- old studies for his UEFa Pro Licence — a requirement in Ligue 1 — Reims pay a €25,000 fine every match. Is that taken from his wage?
‘It’s been, sort of, negotiated,’ laughs Still. ‘The club said, “We’re ready to invest in your career, just as long as you keep winning!”’
That could prove tricky. Reims visit Paris Saint- Germain later this month for a date with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Co. ‘ You reflect on it and think, “Why the hell am I doing this? How am I in the position to be coaching against these guys?”’
But he has already frustrated them once this season. In October, with boss Oscar Garcia missing, assistant manager Still helped Reims stop PSG scoring for the what remains the only time this season. He replaced Garcia a few days after that 0-0 draw.
‘We irritated them to a boiling point,’ remembers Still. Their blueprint? ‘ Just annoy them as much as we could,’ he explains. ‘Press them, foul them, grab them by the scruff of the neck. as soon as there’s a foul, run at the referee and make it as loud as possible.’
Will that be the plan again, then? ‘along those lines,’ Still smirks.
These days, his philosophy relies on players being ‘proactive’. The art of irritation, however, is something he mastered in Belgium.
‘I was a holding midfielder. I wasn’t the quickest — I can run the 100 metres in about 10 days,’ he explains. ‘ But people hated playing against me. I’d walk on someone’s foot or smash them in the back of the neck. I’m not like that in day-to-day life but once I got on the pitch I was the dirtiest b**** r. My mum was always embarrassed to watch me.’
Those skills were enough to play in Belgium’s lower leagues. Fortunately, Football Manager had prepared him for an early career change. ‘I spent nights where you get to 10pm, thinking, “OK, one more game”. Then you end up at 4am, “Oh, I’m still at it”.’
For Still, a West Ham fan, serious real- life coaching began at Preston’s Myerscough College. There, as part of his studies, he coached North End’s Under 14s. after returning to Belgium in search of more opportunities, he met only dead ends until his final port of call, Sint-Truiden, offered him work in opposition analysis.
By 2017, Still had hopped between various roles at Standard Liege and second-tier Lierse. Then Lierse’s president promoted him to the top job. ‘That is ridiculous, I’m only 24,’ Still told him.
His tenure there, and at top-flight Beerschot, proved false dawns.
But offers kept coming and he returned to Liege. While assistant coach, he faced Ed’s former side, Charleroi. They are ‘two completely opposite characters’.
‘You walk into his house, it’s like a museum,’ jokes Still. ‘If you walk with your shoes on, he’ll be brooming up behind you.’ Two different coaches, too. ‘ Ed is structured, everyone knows exactly what they’re doing,’ says Still. ‘I’m not like that. If you want to dribble past six players and stick it in the top corner, do that.’
The lines separating Still’s real and virtual careers remain blurred. While working at Sint-Truiden, he was coaching them on Football Manager, too. He has even used the game’s database for scouting.
But there remains one crucial tenet of coaching that can’t be recreated: managing people and their foibles. Fortunately, that is one of Still’s favourite parts of the job.
Reims kept him on partly because of how the mood had shifted. ‘ This generation just wants to have a bit of fun and the more you encourage them to be themselves and express themselves, the more banter and energy comes out,’ says Still.
among his key weapons? Ultra-competitive training. ‘In any game we play, there are points. at the end of every month, whoever sits bottom of the league table must buy everyone a meal.’ Here is where Still sees youth as his advantage. He has grown up in the same world as his players. ‘ I’m Will, not gaffer. I want everyone to be themselves and I’ll be myself first. They put music on that I listen to. They’re talking about things I’ve probably watched on telly or done with my mates. ‘and if I have to tell a player to come off the bench and do this for us? It’s just what words I am going to use so that he knows I understand what he’s feeling.’
Striker Folarin Balogun, on loan from arsenal, is among those shining under his guidance. Only Neymar and Mbappe have scored more in Ligue 1 than the 21-year-old.
‘ He’s trying to learn the language. We have a bit of banter, his French is terrible,’ says Still. ‘He’s unbelievable, he has real talent but is also a top person.’
The same goes for Still: some at Reims consider it only a matter of time before he joins a huge club.
‘If the opportunity comes to go back to England, that’s a dream,’ he says. ‘If it doesn’t, there will be something else, somewhere else.’
Still adds: ‘I never had a career plan or objectives I have to meet before a certain age... I’ve no idea what I’m going to eat tonight.’
Having spoken English at home, French at school and Flemish on the pitch, he isn’t even sure where he fits in. ‘If I’m in Belgium, I’ll feel English. If I’m in England, I’d feel half-Belgian. I am somewhere lost in the Channel.’
His only goal? Never stop evolving. ‘Sir alex Ferguson is one you look up to and think: how the hell did he do that for so long? and how the hell were they so good at the end of it?’
No one is the future for ever, after all.
‘I’m Will, not gaffer. They put music on that I listen to!’