Xavi Simons played nine years in the youth academy of FC Barcelona, until he decided to leave for Paris Saint-Germain. Now he is making an impression at PSV and the World Cup is coming. Shame for Barca? ,,He has really grown up now, become a man. He wasn't when he left here."
Xavi Simons in 2011 and 2016 in the youth academy of FC Barcelona. © Getty
The 2012 team photo of the A-team of FC Barcelona is quite striking. Or especially the names that accompany it. Because they're all nine-year-old boys. And at that age you may have been chosen by a big club, as a very young talent, but on the long, long road that follows towards professional football, most drop out.
From this photo from ten years ago, almost all the boys still play football, and at a high level. Some at strong semi-pro clubs in Catalonia – sometimes on loan from Barça – one at Betis Sevilla, one at Girona, another one in the United States. Alejandro Balde (19) is the only one to have made it to Barça's first; The left back has a chance at the World Cup in Qatar. Just like the boy almost on the far left in the photo, who would become one of his best friends in the years to come: Xavi Simons.
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Team photo at FC Barcelona with a very young Xavi Simons (second from left). © Private image |
Balde and Simons went through that long journey together. First half days in the Masia, the famous youth boarding school in Barcelona, then they also stayed overnight and only went home on the weekends, although of course they also had to play a game. At the time of that photo, when they were nine, both saw that the dream of one day playing for the great Barca was possible; fifteen of the players from the A-selection came from their own youth academy. The best known: Puyol, Piqué, Valdés, Iniesta, Busquets, Pedro, Messi, Thiago, Fábregas, Alba and the man Simons (Amsterdam, 2003) is named after: Xavi.
But with Balde, there is now no Xavi Simons in the selection of Coach Xavi Hernández, while the current PSV player was the best player in the Masia for all those years. ,,Those are things that happen during such a long trajectory'', says Carles Martínez, who was Simons' trainer for two years, including in his last season with the blaugranas, until the sudden departure in 2019.
The move to Paris Saint-Germain had several causes. At 16, players are allowed to sign their first contract; Barca offered Simons a starting fee of €100,000 per season, rising to €225,000 at the age of 18, club sources told El Periódico newspaper. "But PSG's offer must have been really surreal," said Martínez. In addition, the Simons camp, led by agent Mino Raiola and father Regilio Simons, wanted Xavi to play with the highest junior team, Juvenil A, and not with his peers a step lower. But as talented as he was, Simons – one of the smallest in height – hardly ever played with or against older players. ,,They used to do that at the club, but now hardly any more'', said coach Martínez, who no longer works at Barça.
Moreover, the Barcelona leadership did not want to pull out all the stops for the Dutch talent, despite the fact that he was by far the most mediagenic of the Barça youth with over 1.5 million followers on Instagram. The club also saw other players emerge. Just before Simons was a golden generation with Ansu Fati, Nico González and Ilaix Moriba (the two last named now playing for Valencia) and after him came the even younger Gavi. And the summer Simons left Barça bought Pedri. Four of these five have already made their debut with the Spanish squad. Not that they were not mourning the farewell of Simons at Barcelona, just when compatriot Patrick Kluivert became the head of the youth academy. ,,It's always a shame if you invest so many years in a player and then, for one reason or another, it doesn't lead to the A-selection'', said Martínez. And Simons certainly had a chance at that main force, says his former trainer, who is full of praise for him. “Technically he is very strong, and he is also very athletic. Tactically we had to refine him, he didn't stick to Barça's DNA very much: stay in your position, pass the ball quickly."
Because Xavi became such a phenomenon on Instagram, people thought he was a bit of an arrogant guy - Carles Martinez'
The youth coaches who supervised Simons were especially impressed by his personality. ,,Xavi is very brave and mentally strong'', says Martínez. ,,From an early age he stood out, not only because of his fabulous playing, but also because of his hair, those curls. He later became known outside of Barça thanks to social media. When we played an away game, everyone from such a club wanted to see him." Those curls were already there when Xavi arrived in Barcelona in the summer of 2010 with father Regilio, mother Peggy and brother Faustino, seven years older. A few years earlier, in the final phase of the football career of Regilio (including Fortuna Sittard and NAC), the family had settled in Rojales, in South-East Spain, close to Alicante. Xavi started playing football there at the age of six at the Escuela de Fútbol Municipal, the municipal football school, and immediately attracted attention. Scouts from Villarreal - with one of the best youth academy in Spain - saw him play and immediately wanted to sign him, but Regilio didn't like that; his son would end up in a football boarding school, 280 kilometers from home, very young.
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| Xavi Simons at PSV Eindhoven. © Getty Images |
A month later, however, FC Barcelona came forward, and the decision was quickly made within the Simons family. From an anonymous village – where Xavi still regularly returns with brother Faustino and friend Balde – to the big city, and especially to that big club where Leo Messi shined. Barça helped with the search for a home. A few months later, he made his debut in blue-purple as a seven-year-old with the A team. In late 2011, Barça opened the new youth boarding school at the training complex, where Xavi would later, as a teenager, be one of eighty 'residents', largely shielded from the outside world. It was also in his teens, with a sponsorship deal with Nike at the age of fourteen, that he garnered not only admiration from spectators and opponents, but also hostile reactions at the away games; jealousy, criticism, swear words… Trainer Martínez: ,,Because Xavi became such a phenomenon on Instagram, people thought he was a bit of an arrogant guy, a boaster. But he is just the opposite. He has always been very humble and kind to everyone. A friend of his friends. And, most importantly for us, he could take the whole team in tow when things weren't going well. I think that constant pressure, always focusing on you, is what made him so strong mentally.”
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| Xavi Simons in 2011 at the Joan Gamper training center. © Getty Images |
The comments in Spanish sports newspapers and among football followers were derogatory and with some glee when Xavi Simons moved from Paris to Eindhoven last summer. He would have failed at PSG, where he was unable to secure a permanent place in the star team of Mbappe, Neymar and Messi. ,,Failed, you really can't say that'', says Carles Martínez. ,,It is always difficult to get into the main squad at clubs like Barça or Paris Saint-Germain. I think the years in Paris have also been good for him. I see on TV a different Xavi than the one we had here. When he left, he had not yet made the step from boy to man. He is now fully grown. Mentally he was already good, now he has become much stronger physically.”