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William Still (born 14 October 1992), is a Belgian former footballer and manager. He is currently the caretaker manager of Stade de Reims.

William Still

Personal information
Full name	William Still
Date of birth	(1992-10-14) 14 October 1992 (age 30)
Place of birth	Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Club information
Current team	Stade de Reims (caretaker manager)
Youth career
	Sint-Truiden
	Mons
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Overijse
	Grez-Doiceau
	RJ Wavre
	Rixensart
	Wavre Limal
Teams managed
2011–2012	Preston North End U14 (assistant)
2017	Lierse (assistant)
2017	Lierse (caretaker)
2017–2018	Lierse (assistant)
2018–2021	Beerschot (assistant)
2021	Beerschot
2021	Stade de Reims (assistant)
2021–2022	Standard de Liège (assistant)
2022–2023	Stade de Reims (assistant)
2022–	Stade de Reims (caretaker)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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.[1]

Still has two brothers, Nicolas and Edward Still, both also active in football. [1][2]

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[3] in Preston, Lancashire.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6] In June 2017 Still returned to Standard Liège,[7] 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.[8] 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.[9][10] Eventually, Lierse employed Still has full time manager.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[4] 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.[4]

Following his departure from Beerschot, Still joined Ligue 1 team Stade de Reims as assistant to manager Óscar García. Following fourth months in France, List 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. And also that he felt he had unfinished business at the club, after leaving 5 years earlier.

At the end of the 2021-22 season, Still got a call back from Stade de Reims, to go back to the Ligue 1 side as assistant manager. [4]

References

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