He was formed playing Football Manager, he does not have a coaching title and breaks all stereotypes at the helm of Reims in Ligue 1

What is the experience? According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), it refers to a prolonged practice that provides knowledge or ability to do something. Soccer rewards that gift and can come to judge those who do not have it, according to each case. This sport has several cases of coaches who have reached the peak of their career without an ounce of experience prior to that role. Without going any further, one of the most recent is Lionel Scaloni, world champion with the Argentine team criticized at the beginning for having supplanted Jorge Sampaoli in office, but it is not even a requirement to be a professional player because there is another case that arouses curiosity in Europe. A person who started his career through a video game, does not even have the title of coach and had the pleasure of facing the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) of Messi, Neymar y Mbappe.

Like so many other people, William Stillborn on October 14, 1992, had the firm desire to be a footballer, but an unsuccessful step through the youth academy Sint-Truidense from Belgium, a club that would mark his life again years later, precipitated his original plan. After that frustration, a sports management game allowed him to start thinking about what his new job would be: “I became obsessed with him. Football Manager and ignited my passion for training. My brother and I played non-stop. They wouldn’t let us have a PlayStation, so we played Football Manager on the family computer. We created a squad, we organized the training sessions”. “I would never have thought that the game could have influenced my career in real life, but it clearly has.”, he declared in an extensive column published in The Coaches Voice.

This taste, initiated in adolescence, allowed this man born in Belgium, but of English parents, to give direction to his life. One of the first courses held was at the Myerscough College, located in the English city of Preston. At only 20 years old, he had his first experience of himself in the cast of the city, Preston North End, to function in the academy of the entity. Upon his return to the country that sheltered him from the cradle, he found a disappointing scenario: “When I returned to Belgium after finishing university, I set out to gain experience in professional football. I went knocking on doors. ‘I’m young and I’m nobody, but I have experience at Preston and at university. Can I, in any way, shape or form, be of any help?’, he would say to them. It was one no after another. They closed the door in my face. I was starting to lose hope.”

Doubts began to eat away at Still’s head, who was beginning to become disillusioned with his choice. His list was beginning to be full of deletions. His last option was the one who had cut short his football career, the Sint-Truidense from the Belgian second division: “I didn’t want to go back to a place where I had already been, but now I wanted an opportunity anywhere”. The first team coach Yannick Ferraragave him an opportunity to be a video analyst to honor. He never let go of his first love that led him to this role, because his bond with the club was so strong that even “I was trying to win the league” with that team in the video game.

These experiences, added to a brief path through the same role in the Standard of Liejathey allowed him to disembark in the Lierse, of the same category. He was an analyst, scout and assistant coach until the dismissal of the outgoing coach opened up an opportunity for him in the first team. “You are going to do it”, was the president’s message, which exploded like a bomb in his mind. Despite having objected that there were other people trained for this position, the leader was inflexible with that 24-year-old: “No, I don’t care about the others. I like you”. Absolute support in the middle of a scenario in which the squad was penultimate and at risk of relegation: “I was scared to death”. He directed a total of eight games with a balance of seven consecutive victories. He started his cycle in October 2017 and ended at the end of that year. Because? He does not have a UEFA A License, the one allowed to direct at the highest level. He remained as an assistant, but the good relationship established with the players was an obstacle for the new coach and he ended up moving away the following April.

Four years later, he became the youngest coach in the Belgian first division with the Beerschot. After 15 games, he arrived at the Reims of France to be an assistant to the new coach, Oscar Garcia. “We have been following you for a long time. Do you want to come and chat? ”, launched the general director. Some time ago, they had attended a series of training sessions without his knowledge and the leaders were captivated: “I didn’t think twice and accepted the offer”.

After an ephemeral return to Belgium, he returned to have the same occupation in the Ligue 1 entity starting this season, but his life would turn 180 degrees days before his 30th birthday. A victory in nine appearances and the latent possibility of relegation put an end to García’s stay on the bench: “They told me: ‘Óscar is leaving, but you can’t leave. We want you to take charge.’ He didn’t have many options or time to think about it. They told me that, in principle, it would be until the World Cup in Qatar”. He debuted, neither more nor less, with the pointer: “I thought ‘don’t put six in us’. However, it was the first time PSG had gone goalless all season.” On Saturday, October 8, they equalized 0-0 and, last January, they drew 1-1 in a match that included a euphoric celebration of their responsibility for the goal that scored a draw at the end. They finished undefeated in the two matches of the domestic tournament and left behind the four consecutive defeats against the championship leader.

*William Still’s celebration in Reims’ agonizing draw against PSG

The managerial satisfaction caused by the three wins and the same number of draws caused the cycle to extend beyond the World Cup. For each match that passes, Reims must pay 25,000 euros because they still do not have the coaching diploma authorized for this event. I could only have it in the middle of 2023. This loss, which could reach a figure close to 700 thousand of the same coin at the end of the season, is supported by their numbers. He has hit a streak of 15 games undefeatedproduct of 8 wins and 7 draws. He lost for the first time on February 8 last in the elimination against Toulouse for the round of 16 of the French Cup, while it continues clean of defeats in Ligue 1. It is placed tenth with 34 points, very far from the fight for permanence and 9 behind Rennes, last to qualify to an international cup.

This club, which became European runner-up in 1955 and 1959, losing to Alfredo Di Stéfano’s Real Madrid, and which had glorious strikers such as Just Fontaine or Carlos Bianchi among its ranks, aims to recover a portion of the honey from those successes by William Still. A coach who focuses his maximum dream on directing the West Hamentity of which he is a fan, and defies fate. “If someone had told me that I would become the manager of a Ligue 1 team at the age of 30, I would have punched them in the face”. Obviously, she would have been wrong.

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