“Xavi loses the ball too often”
Oranje coach takes on Leipzig star
March 25, 2024, 1:17 p.m
In the Bundesliga, Xavi Simons regularly delights in Leipzig, but the 20-year-old is still without a goal or assist in the Dutch national team. Bond coach Ronald Koeman sees reasons for this and clearly addresses them before the international match in Germany.
Ronald Koeman by no means wanted to join in the raves about Xavi Simons. On the contrary. The bond coach took the young star of the Bundesliga before the duel with Germany on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./RTL and in the live ticker at ntv.de) verbally really. “Xavi took too many risks in his actions. He was one of the players who simply lost the ball far too often,” said Koeman. Mind you, after a 4-0 win against Scotland.
But the sometimes grumpy 61-year-old was not blinded by the result. Simons even got a tip: “He’s making it too complicated. He’s slowly learning that we in the Netherlands don’t benefit from losing the ball.” And the newspaper “AD” followed up. “Xavi Simons was once again unconvincing,” said the paper. The 20-year-old has played twelve times in the Orange jersey so far. The balance: no goal, no assist.
Simons is by no means used to this kind of headwind. At Rasenballsport Leipzig, the strong dribbling and goal-scoring attacker has been delighting fans, teammates and coaches since the summer. “His profile is extraordinary. He is never satisfied, he always wants more. He is a great boy,” said coach Marco Rose. In 25 Bundesliga games so far, Simons has recorded seven goals and eleven assists. In just a few months, despite his youth, he has developed into a pillar of the Leipzig team.
With 7 to FC Barcelona, with 16 to Paris St. Germain
No wonder that lawn ball sports would like to have fun with Simons for longer. But the top talent is only on loan from Paris Saint-Germain – with no option to buy. Simons already has a task waiting for him in the French capital. He is supposed to compensate for the departure of Kylian Mbappé in the summer. “He has the perfect qualities for what we want. He could of course be a very interesting option for us,” said coach Luis Enrique recently.
The amazing thing about Simons’ career is that he’s gotten this far. Not in terms of talent, of course. But the Dutchman would be far from the first highly gifted player to disappear into obscurity after he was once seen as the new Lionel Messi.
Simons found himself on exactly this path. At the age of seven he went to the FC Barcelona academy, and at 16 he moved to Paris amid great drama and allegedly under pressure from those around him. Looking back, it was a good transfer. “I came into the first team at 17 with all the experienced players: Neymar, Messi, Ramos, Marquinhos, Mbappé,” Simons told Kicker. “That was the best thing that could have happened to me. During this time I saw and learned what you have to do if you want to achieve something.”
Already a little star in puberty
His mentor in Paris was a certain Neymar. “He knew me from Barcelona and he took a lot of care of me. That was something big for me and I’m forever grateful to him,” said Simons. And yet he was denied his breakthrough at PSG as a teenager. He moved to Eindhoven, excelled in the tranquil Eredivisie and then climbed one or two levels higher to Leipzig.
Xavier Quentin Shay Simons’ plan seems to be working. And that’s also because of his head. Companions describe him as hard-working, willing to learn and thoroughly down-to-earth. Which is quite remarkable for a young man who was already a minor star on social media during puberty. Simons published his dribblings in Barça’s youth on Instagram – and they went around the world.
Today he has 5.7 million followers on the platform, almost three times as many as his club Leipzig. It’s still a long way from Messi’s 501 million. But even someone like Simons still has to have goals. And the learning effect Koeman wanted will also work. Marco Rose is sure: “With more games under your belt and more experience, the package will be even more complete.”