Do you ever play the career mode in FIFA22 and think “with my skills I could absolutely become a #Soccer coach”? #William Still experienced something similar – but with the help of “Football Manager”.

Looking at simulation video games these days, it’s no wonder you sometimes think to yourself, “Well, with all I’m accomplishing here – I should be able to do this in real life.” You can really get lost in the details of some simulators. Even the FIFA 22 career mode sometimes makes you think, “I could definitely get into the #Bundesliga.”

Something similar is reported by William Still. Now 29 years old, Still is a regular on the sidelines of professional soccer as an assistant coach for Belgian first division club Standard Liege. A circumstance he also owes to the game “Football Manager” – Still told in an interesting portrait of “Sportbible.”

“I think Football Manager helped me to become a better coach”.

Still tells us: Together with his brother Edward, Still played football manager for hours at a young age – first the “F.A. Premier League Football Manager 2001”, then the “Championship Manager”. “The worst phase came when I was about 14 or 15. You’d look at the clock and it’d be 10 p.m. and you’d say, ‘Oh, I’m going to bed at midnight.’ And the next thing you know, it’s 3:30 in the morning,” Still recalls today.

“Football Manager gave me the impetus to build a team,” he says today. He was good at soccer, he says, but the game gave him his first taste 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 a lot of detail to win and be successful, especially nowadays when the game is getting more complicated. I appreciate people who are so passionate and so immersed in the game.”

Championship Manager opened up the Still brothers on what coaching could look like

Still describes how much of the game is actually like what happens in real life: “It sounds silly to say it, but there were so many aspects that came back and made sense.”

For example, he said, this relates to transfer activities with offers and counter-offers, but not only: “There are also general conversations with players, setting up training plans, fitness groups and training programs, both collectively and individually.”

Of course, he said, the game could also be played “simply,” just worrying about transfers and that’s it. In that case, he said, it’s not that close to reality. But the more you go into detail, Still says, the more the game resembles real life: “I think Football Manager helped me become a better coach.”

Incidentally, this also fits in with statements made by Liverpool pro Diogo Jota: he said FIFA made him a better footballer.

This is how William Still’s career has gone so far

Sportbible describes how Still went from long nights in front of Football Manager to coach. Still also had something going for him in real soccer, playing in the fourth Belgian league. But at 17, he decided not to look further in the direction of professional soccer. Instead, he moved to England to get his sports degree.

As part of a course on video analysis and soccer training, he ended up at the Preston North End club. There he coached the U14 team.

After returning to Belgium from England, he met the coach of second division club Sint-Truiden, Yannick Ferrera, after a match. Still asked him if he could be of any use – without a contract, without money. Ferrera asked him if he could film and edit games – and he could.

A little later Still was also to provide analysis of the videos. And now it was on.

• Sint-Truiden was promoted and Ferrera moved to first division rivals Standard Liege. Ferrera took him with him as a video analyst.
• A little later he moved to Lierse SK, where Still helped with training as well as video analysis. Then, in 2017, the coach there was fired – and Still was asked to take over as a 24-year-old on a transitional basis. He just couldn’t believe it:

I was heavily involved, but going from assistant to real manager was something else. I did about ten times [zum Club-Präsidenten] said, ‘I don’t think you understand. I’m only 24, this isn’t happening.’ But he said it was fine. From that day on, I was head coach of a Belgian second-division club and basically living my dream.

William Still (via Sportbible)

• In 2018, however, the club went bankrupt and Still had to leave.
• He moved to Beerschot – and became assistant coach there again.
• In 2021, he then became head coach at Beerschot – at the age of 28, which was a record for the youngest head coach ever in Belgium.
• He then moved to Stade Reims for a few months – and faced Lionel Messi in his debut for Paris Saint-Germain.

He warmed up next to me and I thought: Damn, that’s Lionel Messi… this is actually ridiculous.

William Still (via Sportbible)

Then, in October, it was back to Belgium for him – to Standard Liege, where he again took on the role of assistant coach.

In Belgium, William Still then even came face to face with his brother Edward, who is in turn head coach at RSC Charleroi. You can see: The soccer manager sessions have obviously brought both brothers further.

Now Still has long-term plans to become a head coach again himself.

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