29-year-old lives the dream: Played so much football manager that he is now a real professional trainer
Do you sometimes play career mode in FIFA 22 and think “with my skills I could absolutely become a football coach”? William Still experienced something similar – but with the help of the “Football Manager”.
When you look at simulation video games these days, it’s no wonder you sometimes think, “Well, with everything I’m doing here, I should be able to do it in real life.” In the details of some simulators, you can really sink. Even the FIFA 22 career mode sometimes makes you think: “I could definitely go to the Bundesliga.”
William Still reports something similar. Still is 29 years old today and is regularly on the sidelines of professional football as the assistant coach of the Belgian first division club Standard Liège. A circumstance that he also owes to the game “Football Manager” – Still told this in an interesting portrait of “Sports Bible.”
“I think Football Manager helped me become a better coach”
Still says: Still played football manager for hours with his brother Edward when he was young – first FA Premier League Football Manager 2001, then Championship Manager. “The worst phase came when I was about 14 or 15. You looked at the clock and it was 10pm and you said ‘Oh I’m going to bed at midnight’. And the next thing you know, it’s three-thirty in the morning,” Still remembers.
“Football Manager gave me the impetus to build a team,” he says today. Although he was good at football, the game gave him a first impression of what it was like to manage a team: “I think people who play Football Manager understand the game a little better. You have to go into great detail to win and be successful, especially these days when the game is getting more and more complicated. I appreciate people who are so passionate and so immersed in the game.”
Still describes how a large part of the game actually corresponds to what happens in real life: “It sounds silly to say that, but there were so many aspects that resurfaced and made sense.”
This applies, for example, to transfer activities with offers and counter-offers, but not only: “There are also general discussions with the players, the establishment of training plans, fitness groups and training programs, both collectively and individually.”
Of course you can also play the game “just”, worry about transfers and that’s it. Then it’s not so close to reality. But the more you go into detail, Still says, the more the game resembles real life: “I think Football Manager has helped me become a better coach.”
Incidentally, this also fits with statements by Liverpool professional Diogo Jota: He said that FIFA makes him a better footballer.
This is how William Still’s career has gone so far
Sportbible describes how Still turned from late nights at Football Manager to coaching. Still had something on the box in real football too, playing in the fourth Belgian league. At the age of 17, however, he decided not to look any further in the direction of professional football. Instead, he moved to England to do his sports degree there.
He ended up at the Preston North End club as part of a course on video analysis and football training. There he coached the U14 team.
After returning to Belgium from England, he met second division Sint-Truiden’s coach Yannick Ferrera after a match. Still asked Den if he could be of any use – with no contract, no money. Ferrera asked him if he could film and edit games – and he could.
A little later Still should also provide analyzes of the videos. And now it worked.
- Sint-Truiden rose and Ferrera moved to Premier League rivals Standard Liège. Ferrera took him along as a video analyst.
- A little later he moved to Lierse SK, where Still helped with training in addition to video analysis. Then, in 2017, the coach there was fired – and Still was supposed to take over temporarily as a 24-year-old. He just couldn’t believe it:
I was very involved, but going from assistant to real manager was different. I have about ten times [zum Club-Präsidenten] said, ‘I don’t think you understand. I’m only 24. That’s not going to happen.’ But he said it was fine. From that day on I was the head coach of a Belgian second division club and I was basically living my dream.
William Still (via Sports Bible)
- However, in 2018 the club went bankrupt and Still had to leave.
- He switched to Beerschot – and became an assistant coach there again.
- In 2021 he became head coach at Beerschot – at the age of 28, which was a record for the youngest head coach in Belgium.
- He then moved to Stade Reims for a few months – where he faced Lionel Messi in his debut for Paris-Saint-Germain.
He was warming up next to me and I thought: damn, that’s Lionel Messi… that’s actually ridiculous.
William Still (via Sports Bible)
In October he went back to Belgium – to Standard Liège, where he again took on the role of assistant coach.
In Belgium, William Still even faced his brother Edward, who is himself head coach at RSC Charleroi. You can see: the football manager sessions have apparently helped both brothers.
In the long term, Still plans to become the head coach again himself.
Do you also have a game that you think could influence your career in the future? Tell us in the comments.
The cover photo is from William Still’s introduction video at Standard Liège on Youtube.
Reference-mein-mmo.de