Stade de Reims' Will Still Unbeaten in 12 Matches After Getting Start in Video Game

Will Still's story is almost hard to believe. At the age of 30, he's the manager of Stade de Reims, which plays in France's top-flight soccer league, Ligue 1. Not only has his ascension been swift, but he's also unbeaten in 12 matches.

Oh, and his love of the sport was bred, in part, in the video game Football Manager, a soccer management simulation on multiple gaming platforms.

He is, quite simply, living the dream.

Still didn't go straight from Football Manager to a top gig. His coaching journey began back in 2011 at England's Preston North End as the under-14 assistant manager, and he climbed the ranks from there. That ultimately led him to Reims as an assistant by the age of 28, and he took over as interim manager this campaign when Óscar García was sacked midseason.

He's since been given the permanent post. And even he can't quite believe his meteoric rise.

"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. It would have been a totally ridiculous suggestion," he wrote in The Guardian last week. "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."

From Football Manager to earning a 1-1 draw against Paris Saint-Germain, it's been quite the ride for Still.