The Reims coach started out playing Football Manager

Among the gifts I received during the holidays, this Christmas brought me Football Manager 2023, a game that needs no introduction and that a true football obsessive has tried at least once in his life. It has been years since I had that huge graphic on my computer that kept me glued to the screen during my teenage years, perhaps much more than FIFA and any other video game. 2023 is the year I decided to lock myself away in this small, perhaps not so much, virtual reality, trying to bring Venezia back to Serie A and why not in a few years perhaps even to winning the Champions League with Busio and Tessmann to whom I entrusted the keys of my midfield without even thinking about it. The beauty of the game for me has always been this, to try to bring back noble lapses or lower category teams to the top rung of the world, I couldn't explain in words the emotion I felt seeing my Nottingham Forest first in the Premier League and then in the Champions League final a few years ago.

And as I was on my way back to Milan after the usual Christmas holidays spent at home, just a second before boarding the plane I came across this news that Will Still, a Belgian coach but of English origin started his career on the game and then ended up coaching a real team, Reims. He is only 30 years old and is the youngest coach ever seen on a French bench, a bit like me in virtual reality, only he actually has to deal with a real team while I dabble in the evenings and forget about my surroundings for a few hours. He admitted it himself, in an old interview with SportBible he talked about the game like this: "FM made me realise that my desire was to create a team, to talk to the players. I wanted to have that kind of relationship. I was a footballer, but playing FM gave me an idea of what it was like to manage a team."

Contrary to what one might think, the career of the new Reims coach was by no means easy even though his passion has always pushed him further. Will Still started as an analyst at Sint-Truden for free, a place where the coach liked his work so much that he decided to integrate him into his staff and take him with him to his next destination, Standard Liège. From there, his career went uphill or almost uphill, because after only one year he returned to Belgium to Lierse to become assistant coach. From Lierse he landed at Beerschot VA, another Belgian team where he consolidated his experience as an assistant coach, later also taking the coaching job. Here comes the definitive turning point, his story becomes known and he is labelled as an enfant prodige by the press and insiders. 

Before his definitive consecration, Will Still spent a few more years in Belgium as a technical collaborator at Standard Liege, before landing and finally surprising everyone at Reims. In Ligue 1, the Belgian coach of English origin is putting his passion into action, bringing Reims back to safer areas, collecting a haul of four victories and as many draws. This is a story that has to be written, and while waiting for Reims to win the Scudetto and the Champions League, you will soon hear from my career, trying to bring the best young players in the world to the lagoon, and who knows what will happen next.