Xavi Simons Is the Netherlands’ Next Great Hope

In this FRONTPAGE story, we char the rise of a true soccer star - Xavi Simons.

It was the 2024 Euros, one of soccer’s most important European events. The Netherlands national football team was on an inspired run, and while it was eventually defeated by England in the semifinal battle, the match began with an electric goal from the Dutch team’s very own Xavi Simons. In the game’s seventh minute, he turned an innocuous-looking rush into a stunningly beautiful goal, perfectly executed into the top left corner of the net. It was a defining “I’m here” moment for Simons, a tangible approximation of the talent soccer diehards had been drooling over for years. 

Though just 21 years old, Dutch soccer superstar Xavi Simons has long been one of the most hyped young icons in the sport. Born in the Netherlands and raised in Spain, the athlete plays both as an attacking midfielder and as a winger, bringing a dazzling playmaking ability to his current club team, Germany’s RB Leipzig in Bundesliga, and on the Netherlands national team. 

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Simons’ captivating, preternatural ability is what made his injury during an October 2024 Champions League match against Liverpool all the more devastating. It was the first major setback of Simons’ career. A hard challenge — a tackle from an opponent trying to take possession of the ball — left him with ligament damage in his left ankle, for which he immediately underwent corrective surgery. Faced with the first extensive rehabilitation of his career, he fell back on the bedrocks that had, to that point, defined his life: his family, his unmatched work ethic, and a humility that shaped his belief that, despite his status as one of soccer’s most exciting stars, the best is yet to come. 

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After Simons’ injury, he gathered with his personal team to figure out how he could not only survive the setback, but turn it into a launching pad for the next phase of his career. “The first couple of days were a little bit hard, mentally, but after being with my family, friends and my agent, I began to push,” he says. With Bundesliga matches on the horizon, the injury obviously wasn’t ideal, but it helped him re-contextualize his goals both with his club and with the Dutch team. “I must say that I'm more hungry than ever, and I'm really happy about that.” During recovery, he had to recalibrate, deprioritizing his usual focus on football. He worked hard on returning to the pitch not only healthy, but stronger than before. Physical therapy allowed Simons to focus less on improving as a soccer player and more on his body, fine-tuning the weak spots in his anatomy that made him susceptible to future injuries — a task that often falls to the wayside during in-season training. 

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Family was integral to Simons’ recovery. Without the support of his older brother, younger sister, and mother, he isn’t sure he’d be where he is now. “Everything that I have in life is because of them,” he says. Ever the mama’s boy, he takes time to single out his mom, whom he considers “the most important” part of his family. He shouts out his siblings, too: “With them by my side, I feel I have the power and the go-to to achieve everything.”

Simons’ unassuming nature and dedication is one of the many reasons football fans across the world have fallen in love with him. PUMA has too, enlisting the athlete as the face of its Inhale model last November. Recently refreshed in a striking black, red, and purple colorway, the lifestyle sneaker fits Simons’ casual yet playful style. He’s in good company — the Inhale OG was A$AP Rocky’s first signature sneaker with the sportswear giant, and is one of the models that helped spur PUMA’s 2024 street style resurgence. “PUMA is a family,”  Simons says of working with the brand. “PUMA gives you the attention that I think athletes need.” 

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It’s not  Simons’ first foray into the fashion world, but it's clear that he enjoys his newfound status as a tastemaker. “I always had that fashion guy inside of me,” Simons says, explaining that he emulated the style of soccer star David Beckham as a boy before finding his own taste. “Even when I was younger, I always liked to dress up to go out to school and go to football. As I'm growing more, I'm more interested in the fashion world and I think that it fits well with who I am. It’s an interesting way to show the world another Xavi.”

Though uniform rules prevent Simons from going all-out on match days, he tries to incorporate some of his personal style on the pitch. “Everyone has the same clothes in football, but you can add little things like your caps, bracelets or watches or even shoes,” he says.

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Despite Simons’ status as a globally recognized superstar, his humility remains his greatest motivator, something he takes care to emphasize during our conversation. This level-headedness comes in part from precisely how long he’s lived in the spotlight: He joined his first youth development team in 2010; he was seven. As a young teen, he was described as a prodigy while participating at La Masia, FC Barcelona’s renowned training academy. There’s not much he hasn’t already seen. “When you're 14 years old and everything comes suddenly, you have to learn things, you have to experience things. I'm really happy that happened at that time and even though I’m still young, I know how to handle situations.”

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Though Simons is living his dream, he’s quick to remind himself, and others, of where he came from. “I'm still little Xavi from Alicante,” he says, shouting out the Spanish city where he spent much of his youth. “I still have the same people around me and that's what keeps me humble. It’s what keeps my feet on the ground.”