The Radar: Xavi Simons

Simons was born to play the game. Regillo, his father, was a professional footballer in the top flight in the Netherlands for the best part of a decade and named his youngest son after Xavi Hernandez, the Barcelona legend (Faustino, Xavi’s older brother, who shares the same birthday as him, was named after the Colombia striker Faustino Asprilla).

Raised in Spain, after his family relocated to Alicante when his father’s playing career finished, Simons signed for Barcelona aged seven and was catapulted into the spotlight, appearing in Nike commercials alongside Neymar and Ronaldinho as a kid.

At 21, he has already played in Ligue 1, the Eredivisie and the Bundesliga, left Barcelona, signed for Paris Saint-Germain, and rejoined the French club 12 months later after moving to PSV for a season. Are you keeping up? Most of his opponents aren’t.

Simons has not yet recaptured his club form in a Netherlands shirt. Note the word ‘yet’. Like most things with Simons, it’s when, not if, everything falls into place.