Reims coach Will Still leaves French league club with immediate effect
FILE - Reims’ head coach Will Still reacts during the French League One soccer match between Marseille and Reims at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille, France, on Aug. 12, 2023. Reims coach Will Still is leaving with three French league games left to play. The decision was mutual after a meeting involving Still and club president Jean-Pierre Caillot, the Champagne-based side said on Thursday May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
REIMS, France (AP) — Reims coach Will Still is leaving with three French league games left to play.
The decision was mutual after a meeting involving Still and club president Jean-Pierre Caillot, the Champagne-based side said on Thursday.
“In view of this decision, and in order to allow Stade de Reims to look ahead to the next season, it has also been decided that Will Still and his assistant Nicolas Still will step down from their respective roles with immediate effect,” the club said.
Reims was 11th on the table, 30 points behind newly crowned champion Paris Saint-Germain.
Still, an Anglo-Belgian coach, came into the spotlight last season when he lifted Reims out of relegation danger after replacing Oscar Garcia, and built an exciting team combining attacking firepower and defensive solidity.
“Last season’s 19-match unbeaten run and the spectacular matches at Delaune will remain unique moments for me,” Still said. “Delaune and Champagne will always have a special place in my life, and I’ll always be the No. 1 supporter of the Rouge et Blanc.”
Still was contracted to Reims until 2025. He previously expressed a desire to coach in the English Premier League.
After starting as a video analyst and landing several assistant coaching jobs, Still became the youngest coach in the history of the Belgian league when he was appointed by Beerschot at age 28. Despite achieving a ninth-place finish, he was not kept and returned to deputy jobs with Reims, then Belgian side Standard. His second stint in Champagne turned into a fairy tale.
“We are proud to have been able to contribute to the emergence of a coach who has been able to impose his convictions and his playing identity,” Caillot said.
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