XAVI SIMONS the future FOOTBALL MONSTER
Xavi Simons only turned 17 in April, but the teenager has been making headlines for several years now.
The teenager was regarded as one of the most talented youngsters at Barcelona after joining the Catalan club’s famous academy in 2010.
Coaches at Camp Nou had high hopes for the Dutch starlet, but in 2019 he made the controversial decision to join Paris Saint-Germain after failing to agree terms on a new contract with Barça.
Fast-forward a year and Simons, aged 17 and three months, made his professional debut for PSG in a friendly against Sochaux on Wednesday evening.
The teenager entered the fray in the 74th minute, coming on for Julian Draxler at the Parc des Princes.
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He showed flashes of his talent during his cameo appearances and even found himself on set-piece duty, taking a corner towards the end of the match.
But in truth, he didn’t do an awful lot. This was simply an opportunity for Thomas Tuchel to give the youngster his first taste of senior football.
Both Chelsea and Real Madrid were sniffing around Simons when he was just 12 years old.
Europe’s top clubs knew the lad was a huge prospect from very early on.
WATCH HIM IN ACTION
Simons has always been a proper team player. Like Xavi, he prefers to set up his teammates rather than go for glory himself.
“I prefer to assist than to score. For me, assists are the most important,” Simons told freestyle footballer Soufiane Touzani in 2017.
“When I score, I am happy, but if a team-mate scores I am also happy. So I prefer to assist because it’s good for the team.”
Apparently the Youth Ballon d’Or is a thing. Simons won it four times, according to The Sun.
Will he land his hands on the main award one day?
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Nike clearly believe the youngster has a massive future ahead of him because they struck a sponsorship deal with the Netherlands Under-17 international when he was a little younger.
In order to bring him to France, PSG offered a 16-year-old Simons a cool €1 million-a-year contract, which works out at just under €20,000 per week.
Barcelona were not prepared to break their wage structure in order to satisfy the demands of Simons and his agent, which allowed PSG to capitalise.
