William Still (football Manager)

William Still (born 14 October 1992), is an English-Belgian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Reims.

Early life

Still's parents left the United Kingdom for Belgium somewhere around the year 1990, with William being born in Belgium in 1992. He was raised in English and went to a French school in Walloon Brabant. He learned Dutch by playing for Flemish clubs and played for the youth teams of Sint-Truiden and Mons; and for the first team of Tempo Overijse, back then playing the Belgian Fourth Division.Maak kennis met Will Still, de jongste trainer ooit: "Dit was eigenlijk niet de planning"
Het Laatste Nieuws, 16 October 2017

Still has two brothers, Nicolas and Edward Still, both also active in football.

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.

Managerial career

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 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.

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 stayed with Lierse but became the assistant of David Colpaert.

At the end of the 2017–18 season, Lierse was declared bankrupt. Still left for Beerschot to become assistant of Stijn Vreven. Under his successor, Hernán Losada, Beerschot and Still were promoted to the Belgian First Division A. After Losada left mid-January 2021 to start as head coach of D.C. United, Still became the new manager of Beerschot. At the end of the 2020–21 season, despite finishing 9th, Beerschot's owners decided to hire the more experienced Peter Maes to take them into the next season.

Following his departure from Beerschot, Still joined Ligue 1 team Reims as assistant to manager Óscar García. Following four months in France, Still was offered roles at two Belgian clubs and chose to return to Standard Liège. Still explained that part of the reasoning behind this was the fact that his UEFA pro license was registered in Belgium, so he was having to drive back and forth between Belgium and Reims to attend courses, which was becoming a strain on his time.

At the end of the 2021–22 season, Still got a call back from Reims, to go back to the Ligue 1 side as an assistant manager. After García was sacked on 13 October 2022, Still took over as caretaker manager. Following an undefeated stretch of five games, he was appointed as manager for the rest of the season.

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Still, William
1992 births
Living people
Belgian footballers
Belgian football managers
Belgian people of English descent
Preston North End F.C. non-playing staff
Lierse S.K. managers
Association footballers not categorized by position
Standard Liège non-playing staff
Stade de Reims non-playing staff
Beerschot A.C. non-playing staff
Beerschot A.C. managers
Ligue 1 managers
Stade de Reims managers