PARIS, Jan 31: Reims are fined £22,000 everytime their manager Will Still takes charge of a match, but you can understand why the French club are happy to take the financial punishment.
After snatching a point away at league leaders Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday night, Reims are now unbeaten in 12 Ligue 1 matches – a run stretching back to September. Neymar gave PSG the lead early in the second half but Folarin Balogun’s dramatic equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage-time kept Reims’ unbeaten run intact. The club’s 30-year-old manager, Still, has a fascinating story.
Born in 1992, the half-English, half-Belgian coach is Europe’s youngest manager and still studying for his UEFA Pro License.
Because he needs the license to take control of a Ligue 1 team, Reims are subsequently hit with an eye-watering (€25,000) £22,000-per-game hit every time they play. Asked if that’s taken out of his wage, Still told earlier this month: “Well, it’s been, sort of, negotiated.
“The club said: ‘We’re ready to invest in your career. just as long as you keep winning!’”
Still admits that managing against some of the world’s best players including Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar blows his mind.
He said: “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’s in such a lofty position that he is partly due to his love of Football Manager.
“I was just like a normal kid playing Football Manager,” he insists.
“I spent nights where you get to 10 o’clock in the evening, thinking, ‘Ok one more game.’ And then you end up at 4 o’clock in the morning: ‘Oh, I’m still at it.’ But what I realise now, the crazy thing is it’s actually so realistic.” A West Ham fan through his father, Still’s first job was coaching Preston North End’s Under-14s while studying at Myerscough College. Both his parents are English but he was born in Braine-l’Alleud after his mum and dad left the United Kingdom for Belgium in 1990.
He returned to the country of his birth after coaching Preston’s youngsters and then went to work for former club Sint-Truiden, who offered him a job in opposition analysis.
From there he hopped between various roles at Standard Liege and second-tier Lierse, before the latter club’s president appointed him as the team’s manager at the tender age of 24.
He went on to work in coaching roles at Beerschot and Standard Liege before he became Reims assistant in 2021.
And when manager Oscar Garcia was sacked in October, Still stepped in to become caretaker boss and Reims haven’t looked back since.
As for his future plans, Still, who says he looks up to Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson, admits that his ambition is to manage in England.
“If the opportunity comes up to go back to England, then that’s obviously a dream,” he said. “If it doesn’t, there will be something else, somewhere else.
“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.” (Agencies)
