From Football Manager Addict to Managerial Powerhouse

Will Still lived the dream of every Football Manager player. The son of two English parents sunk hours into the popular video game before actually taking the helm of one of France’s largest clubs in October 2022.

Beginning his tenure at Reims with a 17-game unbeaten streak in Ligue 1 – including two draws with the powerhouses of Paris Saint Germain – propelled Still into the spotlight. The Belgian-born coach immediately attracted admirers among neutrals with his relatable Football Manager addiction and developed interested suitors from within the game as Reims played an attractive and progressive brand of football.

Still’s second season at Reims wasn’t defined by the same unbeaten stretch and the coach agreed to part ways with the French club in May 2024 after suffering three consecutive defeats. The 32-year-old then made the switch across Ligue 1 to join Lens, and after a stunning final day 4-0 win over AS Monaco, led the team to 8th place.

Still then confirmed his departure from the club after the one season, and he will finally take charge of a team in English football after Southampton hired them to be their new manager as they begin life back in the Championship from the 2025/2026 season.

Career History

Still was born in the Belgian town of Braine-l’Alleud, after his father moved there to work for Shell. He had a deep passion for football and has been a lifelong West Ham United supporter, which dictated his career path. He applied to study football coaching at Myerscough College, Lancashire and landed his first role in professional football in 2014 when he became a video analyst at Belgian side Sint-Truiden.

A year later, he took a fantastic step up in his career with a move to one of Belgium’s biggest clubs, Standard Liege. But the manager Yannick Ferrera and his coaching team were sacked after slumping to the club’s worst league finish in six years.

Still took on another backroom role in his country of birth at Lierse before he was reluctantly thrust into the hot seat of the second-tier side aged just 24. Without the proper qualifications, Lierse could only turn to their embryonic coach for 60 days at the end of 2017. This brief spell in the spotlight was enough time for Still to shine, guiding a relegation-threatened outfit to seven consecutive wins with 10 players older than him.

Once Lierse declared bankruptcy, Still seized another opportunity in Belgium, joining Beerschot where he spent two years as an assistant. After impressing from within, he eventually took charge in January 2021 and guided the newly-promoted side to within a point of the playoffs to reach the opening stages of the Europa League, but strangely enough, that summer he was let go.

Luckily for Still, he was offered a position under Oscar Garcia as an assistant manager at Reims. When the Spaniard was let go in October 2022, his assistant was appointed interim manager once again. Still was tasked with taking on perennial champions Paris Saint-Germain in his first match at the helm, masterminding a goalless draw against a side stacked with some of the best players in the world, including Kylian Mbappe.

Defensive solidity would be a trademark of Still’s side. Across the 28 games he oversaw during his first season in charge, Reims shipped just 26 goals – a tally only two clubs could better. At the other end of the pitch, Still managed to coax a prolific run of form out of Arsenal loanee Folarin Balogun. The USA international struggled with life in the Premier League, but racked up 21 league goals for Reims, allowing the Gunners to cash in £34m with his sale to Monaco in the summer of 2023.

Despite enjoying the first uninterrupted pre-season of his burgeoning managerial career, Still wasn’t able to extract any consistency out of a side which struggled to replace Balogun’s output. The former Arsenal forward scored a suffocating 47% of Reims’ Ligue 1 goals throughout the 2022/23 campaign – the highest proportion of any player in the division. Oumar Diakite was brought in as Balogun’s replacement for £2.1m and mustered five goals before Still’s departure. No player in the squad could boast more than six.

There were some notable high points during his final few months in Champagne country. Two months after recording a spirited 3-1 victory away to Balogun’s Monaco, Reims held PSG, one of the best teams in the world, to a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes in March. There was no bad blood as Still and the club parted ways. President Jean-Pierre Caillot wrote a gushing statement which read: “We are proud to have been able to contribute to the emergence of a coach who knew how to impose his convictions and his playing identity.”

Despite his exit from Reims, his stock in Ligue 1 was still high, and Lens gave him the job just a month after. In his one and only season in charge of the club, Still would win 17 of 38 total games across all competitions, giving him a win rate of just over 44% – his highest percentage since his brief tenure at Lierse. Lens enjoyed arguably their two biggest successes of the season when the campaign was drawing towards its close, beating rivals Lyon 2-1 away from home, and then trouncing Monaco 4-0 in their final game of the year.

Most young kids dream of working in the alluring world of football, but often the closest they ever get to achieving that goal is through the means of the popular computer game, Football Manager. Still was no different, spending countless afternoons huddled around the family computer, fighting with his brother for control of the mouse.

The game created such an impact on him that he quit playing football and decided to study at Myerscough College to become a professional coach. During his first managerial stint at Lierse, Still admitted: “Although I was the head coach of a professional team, I was also still trying things out in Football Manager as well.”

Why Reims Got Fined With Will Still as Manager

The winding route of Still’s career has constantly thrown up obstacles to his studies. By the time Reims appointed him as interim, Still hadn’t yet acquired his UEFA Pro Licence – the necessary qualification for any manager in a top European league. Without this precious certificate, his employers had to cough up £22,000 every time he took charge of a game, as per the Ligue 1 rules.

Reims are a club that keeps a close watch over the purse strings – the team from northern France have made a £30m profit in the transfer window over the past five years. This penny-pinching strategy clashed with Still’s personal goals and may have been a factor behind his surprise departure, but the financial outlay that the club committed during his debut campaign shows the faith they had. The fines eventually concluded once Still enrolled in a course to acquire his Pro Licence.

What Next For Will Still?

Still has always been hot property since embarking upon his record-breaking unbeaten streak with Reims last term. Fluent in English, French and Flemish – and capable of seamlessly switching between all three during the same training session – the prodigious 32-year-old looked suited to a wide range of posts across the continent, so Southampton have landed a real coup in sealing his services. Indeed, Still himself revealed his desire to return to England in February 2024 during an interview with The Athletic.

While the Saints job may look difficult given just how badly they struggled in the 2024/2025 season – they only just beat Derby County’s lowest points total and statistically being the worst team in Premier League history – they look a good bet to get promoted straight back up from the Championship.

The club’s academy has always produced fine young talent, and while players like Tyler Dibling may be tough to keep hold of over the summer transfer window, you wouldn’t bet against them finding another wonderkid. All in all, Still will fancy his chances of guiding the club back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Stats via Transfermarkt (Correct as of 22nd May 2025)