Xavi Simons is back where the dream began. Five miles from the Mediterranean, in a dry and dusty town surrounded by orange groves, with the sun high and shade at a premium on the day his Tottenham team-mates report back for pre-season.
‘This is where I grew up, my neighbourhood,’ beams Simons. He lived for seven years in Rojales, Spain from the age of three, after moving from the Netherlands, until joining Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy. It is the place he learned to chase the ball.
Half an hour drive from Alicante, he is back to open a Cruyff Court, an urban six-a-side football cage with an astroturf surface, named in his honour and funded by the Johan Cruyff Foundation as recognition for his season at PSV Eindhoven (2022-23), when he finished as top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie.
His crowd of admirers includes old pals and their parents and a couple of hundred children from a summer school kitted out in orange T-shirts. The Spurs and Netherlands playmaker signs every shirt and poses for every selfie.
‘It’s like coming back to basics,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘All the people here are proud of me. They know me as Xavi the kid who was dreaming one day to be a footballer. They’ve followed me in good moments and not-so-good moments so I’m really grateful and for me that’s why it’s important and always nice to come here. So I’m really happy I could do this.’
He would, of course, rather have been undergoing a series of strength and conditioning tests at Spurs. Even the dreaded bleep test sprints in heatwave conditions. These will be waiting for him later in the season when he has recovered from injury.
Tottenham’s Xavi Simons in his former hometown of Rojales in Spain, at the opening of a Cruyff Court football pitch named in his honour
Simons is recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury picked up towards the end of last season
The last couple of months have been difficult for Xavi. ‘Not-so-good moments’ is an understatement.
He tore cruciate knee ligaments at the end of April, in the game when Spurs ended a miserable run of 15 Premier League games without a win at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and just as he started to sparkle under Roberto De Zerbi.
‘I started to find my flow with him, the way he wants to play football,’ says Simons. ‘If I’m honest with you, from the day he came in, he changed the mentality of the club with the way he transmits what he wants.
‘Something was different from the first day. New energy, new boost. Sometimes in bad situations you only need a small change to make a massive difference and that small change was Roberto.
‘When he was a player, he played as a No 10, like me. He knows how I feel in certain situations. It’s true, I need that kind of freedom to feel good about my game. He gave me confidence and that’s what you need as a player.
‘When you don’t feel confidence or trust from the manager, it’s a little bit difficult. From day one, he gave that to the whole team, especially to me. And then of course things like this happen. Only the second injury in my entire life.’
Simons missed the last four games of the Premier League season and the World Cup. ‘It was a little bit painful at the start,’ he admits. Others close to him will tell you he was distraught. Unable to do his bit in the survival fight.
‘After the operation you have to spend a couple of days in bed doing nothing,’ he says. ‘You really don’t have the power to do anything. You cannot stand up, you cannot go to the toilet alone, you don’t even have appetite to eat.
Simons signed every shirt and posed for every selfie at the Cruyff Foundation event
‘From the day Roberto came in, he changed the mentality of the club,’ says Simons of Spurs boss De Zerbi
‘It was hard at the start, but my family came to the hospital and then it was like, “OK let’s move on”. This is a lesson in life. My first big injury and I’m seeing things in life I didn’t see before. Everything goes so fast, especially in football. This is the first moment to do other things.
‘I’m still young. I’ve experienced a lot in my life – my personal life as well as my football life and now is the moment to be calm and see things differently.
‘A time of reflection. A new beginning. I’m very happy we finished the season on a high because the season was not good. Hopefully the coach and the team start the new season well and the moment I’m back on the pitch you’re going to see a new Xavi.
‘All things happen for a reason. That’s how I’m looking at it right now.’
Simons is grafting in the gym. Updates on his social media channels show him doing pull-ups with weights hanging from a belt around his waist. His new muscular physique is evident here in Spain. He appears stronger than ever around his upper body.
‘I have to get my confidence back in my knee,’ says the 23-year-old. ‘Hopefully I can start running soon. Right now, it feels strong, but I still have to gain more weight on that (injured) leg because it has been nine weeks without doing a lot.
‘I have to compensate the other leg as well, get back into the pattern of running not only in my knees but in my hips. My upper body as well, so a little bit of everything but the progress is there. Every day I can see it and that’s what counts.’
Simons’ was the fourth cruciate knee injury at Spurs inside 14 months. Radu Dragusin was out for 10 months. James Maddison returned within nine months of surgery. On a similar time scale, Wilson Odobert could be back early next year and Simons before the end of the season, but all cases are different.
‘I’ve played against Sandro Tonali,’ says Simons. ‘I know he is a top player. Aggressive with the ball. He will find the passes to those like me’
‘I have my own target (for when I will be back), but I’ll keep it to myself, otherwise I will create expectancy’
‘The day I feel good again in my knee I’ll sit down with people at the club and decide when I’m back,’ says Simons. ‘I have my own target, but I’ll keep it to myself, otherwise I will create expectancy.’
He has followed the transfer activity with interest. Spurs have already signed six new players, twice breaking their transfer record to poach Mateus Fernandes from West Ham for £85million and Sandro Tonali from Newcastle for £100m.
Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka arrived on free transfers and Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton for £52m.
‘JP is a regular starter in the national team,’ says Simons of his fellow Dutchman. ‘He is experienced in the Premier League, but as well there’s his aggression. You have Senesi and Robertson, very experienced. Roberston won the Premier League and Champions League.
‘We are finding a good balance between young and experienced players and that’s something we maybe missed last season and can’t be (allowed) to happen again.
‘I’ve played with the best players in the world and I want to play with the best. And the fact the club is spending this kind of money for this type of player gives a clear message to everyone. They want the best players at the club and to bring in the best in each position.
‘I’ve played against Tonali for example. I know he is a top player. Aggressive with the ball. He will find the passes to those like me in the No 10 position. He will help the team just to play football and bring success.
‘Everyone can see that the club is aiming high. We know what happened last season can’t even be considered to happen again. This is a massive club. We all know that so at the start of the season, we will see a new Tottenham.’
‘Everyone can see the club is aiming high. We know what happened last season can’t even be considered to happen again’
‘There are big goals I want to achieve for the club. And I know I will achieve them’
Spurs escaped relegation with a win against Everton on the final day of the season, finishing 17th in the Premier League for the second successive year.
‘It cannot get worse than this,’ says Simons, signed from RB Leipzig for £52m in August. ‘We’ve experienced the worst possible scenario. Not only for the players but the whole club because you know if you go down, there is a lot of trouble inside the club.
‘People who may lose their jobs are depending on you as well so as a player it touches you. We were very conscious of that. But that is in the past. We have experienced the worst and we are looking forward to making an impact together and bringing the club back to where it belongs and that’s up at the front.
‘That’s why I’m putting the work in every day. I know what I can bring to the team. There are big goals I want to achieve for the club. And I know I will achieve them. As players we all have big goals and big ambitions. So does the coach.
‘My ambitions are together with the ambitions of the team and the club. To win everything. That’s why I signed. I cannot wait to get back on the pitch and show a better version of Xavi.’
