On August 29, 2021, millions of people sat in front of the TV to watch something unimaginable: Lionel Messi’s debut in a shirt that wasn’t Barcelona’s. With all the spotlight on the Argentine, no one paid much attention to William Still, a person who was at the Stade Auguste Delaune and was taking another important step in his career.
William Still, still at Beerschot (Credit: Reproduction/Transfermarkt)
Still started as an assistant for the under-14 team Preston North End, until he became coach of the professional teams of Lierse and Beerschot, both from Belgium. Hired as an assistant by Stade de Reims in June 2021, the young coach, just 28 years old, would have the opportunity to command the French team by chance, the suspension of head coach Oscar Garcia.
Without being able to count on the commander, the modest team of the city of Reims would need to rely on the knowledge of a “boy” to face the mighty Paris Saint-Germain. This would be enough to make many fans desperate, but what most of them didn’t know (and could serve as an aggravating factor) was that Still developed much of his learning in football management games.
Son of English parents, but born in Belgium, William and his brother Edward have always been passionate about this type of game since they were little, especially the F.A. Premier League Football Manager 2001. In fact, the duo spent so much time perfecting their virtual teams that their parents even banned them from playing.
According to William, the duo played the game created by Electronic Arts until the disc stopped working, eventually deciding to switch to the Championship Manager. At the time, about 15 years old, he would stay up until dawn playing and as he had to wake up soon after, he invariably wondered why he kept doing that.
A beautiful end to the day at FA Premier League Football Manager 2001 (Credit: Disclosure/EA/MobyGames)
With football being part of his life, William Still passed through the youth divisions of clubs such as Sint-Truiden and Mons, reaching his professional debut in the team of Tempo Overijse, of the Belgian fourth division. Then came stints at other lesser teams, indicating that that would be the boy’s life: playing for small clubs, until the time came for him to retire and perhaps become a coach.
However, at a certain point Still realized that he didn’t want that, that he didn’t have the skills to be a great player and so he decided to become a coach. Then began the study phases and the internship at Preston North End, with the subject’s dedication taking him to experiences in several teams. However, he never forgot how this desire to become a coach began.
“Football Manager gave me the impetus to want to organize a team,” declared William Still. “I wanted to be able to talk to the players. I wanted to have that relationship. I mean, I was already into football, but Football Manager allowed me to get that glimpse of what it would be like to truly manage a team.”
“Actually, I think people who play Football Manager understand the game [futebol] a little more,” defended the coach. “You have to go into a lot of detail to really win stuff and be successful in the game, especially these days with it getting more and more complicated.”
Still according to Still, much of what can be seen in a game like Football Manager often happens in real-world clubs. An example cited by him are negotiations, with the virtual coach needing to make a proposal, receiving a counter-proposal and even with the clubs reaching an agreement, it can happen that the athlete simply does not accept the transfer.
The similarities between the real and the virtual would still happen in conversations, in the training schedule and in the definition of exercise routines. For William Still, the deeper we go into the details of the game, the more real it will become, with him even claiming that the Football Manager made him a better coach.
Football Manager: support tool or just a hobby?
“Let’s go team!” (Credit: Disclosure/Sports Interactive)
For the most purists, Still’s statements may sound a bit exaggerated, as a game would not be able to prepare someone for such a complicated task as managing a football club. However, the idea of using Football Manager as a support tool has spread all over the world.
Appearing as one of the favorite games of athletes like Cesar Azpilicueta, Antoine Griezmann, Diogo Jota and Ousmane Dembele, it is often used as an escape valve, allowing even renowned players to feel what it is like to be in the shoes of those who command them. Even former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær has declared to have learned a lot with the creation of Sports Interactive.
But it’s not just aspiring technicians who can benefit from the realism proposed by the series. Football Manager. Serving as a robust database for clubs from different parts of the planet, it is through it that several analysis teams have been looking for athletes who can emerge as new world stars.
Created with the help of a network made up of more than 1300 contributors – not counting the 86 heads of research, including one full-time for the Premier League – over 25 years the title has gathered the data of more than 925 thousand athletes. In its 2021 edition, it already had 350,000 football players, in addition to 60,000 clubs, 50,000 cities and hundreds of competitions.
FM22, a full plate for those who like numbers, tables, etc. (Credit: Disclosure/Sports Interactive)
According to the scout of a club in the English league and who talked to ESPN asking not to be identified, the database available on Football Manager “it’s fantastic […] with it covering every corner of the planet.” Even so, the executive has doubts about how much this can help the analysis departments.
“For me, it’s purely entertainment and I wouldn’t consult the game for information that I would use professionally,” he explained. “At the end of the day, it’s a game… We have our own network that took years to build, made up of people we know and trust, and that’s good enough.”
However, it’s important to note that most clubs don’t have such a well-structured scouting network, let alone the budget of a team in the richest league in the world — and we don’t even have to look to South America to realize that. According to the president of Toulouse, which is part of the French second division, they should adopt the Football Manager as a way to help when hiring.
“There are many clubs that are using [o jogo],” stated Damien Comolli. “He will not be the central pillar of our recruitment strategy, but he can help. Soccer scouts make observations on the field. Then they send those reports and we verify them with data […] All recruitment is done thanks to data that confirms what the scout sees.”
Career in FIFA is much less complex (Credit: Disclosure / EA)
That is, with or without the use of Football Manager, signing a player — especially when it comes to a young prospect — turns out to be a mixture of study, observation and a dash of luck. There are numerous reports of athletes who were ignored by clubs and then became great stars, just like we have those who had everything to avenge, but never left mediocrity.
For those who use games like this just for fun, panning these talents is part of the fun, making betting on boys almost as cool as winning the championship at the end of the season. Interestingly, even though I love football and considering the series’ Career mode FIFA as my favorite, I was never interested in “purely manager” titles.
I believe this has to do with the impossibility of being an active part of these games, leaving us to take care of the administrative and technical aspects of the teams and letting the players make the decisions on the field. As I like to control the virtual athletes directly and because I think that the management in FIFA is already comprehensive enough, I will continue to run my teams just there. At least my marriage thanks.
Source: Mirror Online
