How the Reims head coach went from Preston North End beginnings to matching Paris Saint Germain in Ligue 1

At just 30, he is the youngest head coach in one of Europe’s top leagues but his meteoric rise – which includes drawing both of his side’s league games against giants Paris Saint Germain this season – all started at Preston North End.

Thanks in part to the computer game Football Manager, Still decided he no longer wanted to be a football player and instead a coach. The Belgium-born Englishman, with English parents, then returned to these shores to start studying, enrolling at Myerscough College and doing a bit of work experience with the PNE U14s side.

From North End he went back to Belgium, where he started off at Sint-Truiden doing analysis before working his way up to become assistant manager. He fulfilled the same role at Lierse and Beerschot, all three clubs in the second tier of Belgium’s pyramid, and he spent a period in caretaker charge of them all.

Reims head-hunted him for their assistant manager role in 2021 and with a brief hiatus to move back to Belgium to finish off his coaching badges, he returned to be assistant to Oscar Garcia. But when Garcia was sacked, in stepped Still and he has never looked back.

"At basically any point in my life, if someone had told me I’d be the head coach of a Ligue 1 side at 30, I’d have told them to punch me in the face,” Still told The Coaches Voice.

“It would have been a totally ridiculous suggestion.

“The idea that, at 30, I’d be managing a team against Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Sergio Ramos and Marco Verratti, and in the opposition dugout to Christophe Galtier, was equally mad.

“Life can be crazy, though.

“I’m English – both of my parents are English – but I’ve spent most of my life in Belgium. I took up the chance to go to college and spend some time in England at 18. That was when I realised there was so much more to football than just playing.

“There was coaching, analysis, scouting, physiotherapy, physical preparation. Coaching seemed like the next best thing. That was the closest I was going to get to the adrenaline buzz of playing.

“My first coaching experience was with the Preston North End academy. Being involved in that was fantastic. I’d done some coaching before, with my brother back in Belgium, but nothing at this level. ‘These kids are actually good!’ I thought.

“After that, I knew that coaching was what I wanted to do.When I got back to Belgium after finishing at college, I set out to get some experience in the professional game. I went knocking on doors.

“I found the address of anyone I could in Belgian football and went to see them. ‘I’m young and I’m no one,’ I’d say. ‘But I’ve got experience at Preston, and I’ve got expertise from college. Can I, in any way, shape or form, be of any help?’

“It was no after no after no. Door after door shut in my face.”

Doors have certainly opened for Still since his time in Preston and he’s courting plenty of attention on the global stage, including with a result at the weekend against PSG.

His side equalised in stoppage time to prevent the star-studded side from winning, despite Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and the rest of their starts starting the game.

Back in October, his team was the first to stop the Parisians from scoring in seven months, and they’ve again taken points from the league leaders.

Still said: “It’s magical, honestly. This is why we do this job. To equalise at the 96th minute at the Parc des Princes, in front of so many of your supporters - it’s magical.

“It's impossible to choose (between the point earned or the performance), the content was very, very good especially in the first half, it's nice to take a point at the Park. We showed a beautiful image of Reims.

“We showed that Reims wanted to play, press and be enterprising. We continue on a good momentum.”