Will Still: The Rising Star of English Football Management
Will Still is a name that may not be familiar to many football fans, but he is making waves in France as the manager of Stade de Reims. At just 30 years old, he is the youngest manager in all of Europe’s top five leagues, and he has led his team to a remarkable unbeaten run in Ligue 1.
But who is Will Still, and how did he end up in charge of a French club? In this article, we will explore his life and career, and his strengths and weaknesses of becoming the next manager of the England football team.
Still was born on 14 October 1992 in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium to English parents, Jane (nee Bagley) and Julian Richard Still, who left the United Kingdom two years earlier. His father worked for Shell. Still has two brothers, Nicolas and Edward, both also active in football.
Growing up in the Walloon region, near Brussels, he went to a French language school and then learned Dutch by playing for Flemish football clubs. He went through Sint-Truiden and Mons youth teams, and finally played for Mons reserve team and amateur club Tempo Overijse, back then playing the Belgian Fourth Division.
Still has stated that playing the Football Manager and Championship Manager video game series helped him to decide to switch focus from playing at the age of 17, and move to England to start studying to become a coach at Myerscough College in Preston, Lancashire. Still is a fan of Premier League club West Ham United.
Still started his career as assistant of the U14 manager of Preston North End. At that club he did an internship as part of his football studies at Myerscough College. In 2014, he became video analyst at Sint-Truiden, after successfully using a match analysis to convince manager Yannick Ferrera.
In 2015, the team were promoted to the Belgian First Division A, but when Ferrera switched to Standard Liège, Still followed him. That season, Standard Liège won the Belgian Cup, but in September 2016, both Ferrera and his assistants were sacked. [citation needed]
In April 2017, Still started a new position at second division team Lierse, combining the video analyst job with the assignment as assistant manager of Frederik Vanderbiest. In June 2017, Still returned to Standard Liège, only to leave two days later as his new club did not want to fulfill the agreed upon arrangements as part of the contract negotiations.
Still was able to immediately return to Lierse, where (at just 24 years of age) he was even appointed caretaker manager from October as Vanderbiest got sacked. Eventually, Lierse employed Still as full-time manager. Still managed to guide the team to 21 points out of 27, including a seven-game winning streak.
The 2–0 victory against Westerlo of 2 December 2017 became his last match as head coach however, as he did not possess the “UEFA A-level coach” degree, which is required in the Belgian First Division B to remain in charge for more than 60 days.
Still then joined Beerschot as an assistant manager in January 2021. He helped the newly promoted side finish ninth in their first season back in the top flight. He was appointed as their head coach in June 2021 after Hernán Losada left for DC United. However, he only lasted six months in charge before being sacked in December 2021 following a poor run of results.
Still did not have to wait long for another opportunity though. He joined Reims as an assistant to Óscar García in January 2022. After spending a part of last season back on the sidelines in Belgium with Standard Liège, he returned to Reims at the start of the current campaign.
He took over the reins from García in early October after the Spaniard resigned due to personal reasons. Since then, Still has transformed Reims into one of the most impressive teams in Ligue 1.
Reims are currently fourth in the table, only four points behind leaders PSG