Will Still has aspirations of coaching a team in the Premier League and is willing to consider taking a path similar to Vincent Kompany’s by joining a Championship club.
Still, who is 30 years old, has gained significant attention in European football this season for his impressive work with Reims, a team in Ligue 1.
Reims, with Still in charge for 17 matches, went on a club-record 19-game unbeaten league run, which started after he took over from Oscar Garcia in October.
However, Marseille handed them their first defeat 2-1 at home on Sunday.
The record-breaking head coach of Rennes dreams of the Premier League
As a teenager, Still moved to England where he studied to become a coach. He was raised by English parents in Belgium. Besides a loss in the Coupe de France, he has only been defeated once as a boss.
While his name has been heard around Leeds United and Southampton, Still believes it is still too early for him to manage a team in the Premier League.
“It just seems completely stupid to me that my name is being put up against names that have done so much more and have been so many more places than I have,” he told Sky Sports.
“I wouldn’t ever dare to compare myself to those people.
“I’ve never really thought about it [managing in the Premier League] because I never expected to be in the position I am so early and so suddenly. Why not? I’ve done some crazy things in the past; I was head coach at 24 and the same thing happened at 28 back in Belgium and now I’m 30 and people are saying this is crazy.
“Being English and growing up in an English environment in Belgium, England has always felt like home and a place that I’d love to go back to.
“It would feel like coming home, just because the English culture is part of me, part of my roots, part of my family, part of who I am.
“It would feel like coming home, just because the English culture is part of me, part of my roots, part of my family, part of who I am.
“I think if you asked any kid what they would like to do, they’d say they’d love to be a Premier League footballer or manager and I’m no different.
“I was brought up like everyone else and had the same dreams. I’ll keep at them.
“If it happens one day I’ll deserve it, or I hope I will have deserved it, but I realise how much work there is to do before I get there and how much I’ve got to learn. For now, I will stick it to one side.”
