It’s a sweltering day in south-east Spain and around 100 children are queuing up to meet a local hero.
Xavi Simons was born in Amsterdam but grew up in the quiet village of Rojales in Alicante. The Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder is here to open a football pitch next to the school he attended before a life-changing move to Barcelona’s academy at the age of six.
Despite the oppressive heat, Xavi signs every single shirt and takes photos with members of the Johan Cruyff Foundation. Since 2003, the Cruyff Foundation has presented an award for the Dutch Talent of the Year. A pitch is then built in honour of the winner in a location of their choosing. Simons received the award three years ago, and this is the spot he chose.
Xavi is only 23, yet it feels like he has been in the public consciousness forever. Video footage of a small figure with blonde curls gliding past defenders went viral before he was a teenager. Xavi was part of a formidable generation at La Masia, Barcelona’s renowned academy, which included future first-team stars Alejandro Balde, Fermin Lopez and Gavi. He starred in an advert for Nike when he was only 15 alongside Ronaldinho, Andrea Pirlo and Kevin De Bruyne.
A year later, he joined Paris Saint-Germain, where he rubbed shoulders with Argentina captain Lionel Messi, Brazilian icon Neymar, and the rising star of world football, Kylian Mbappe. Following an impressive loan spell at PSV, he made his debut for the Netherlands at the 2022 World Cup at the age of 19. He then excelled across a two-year spell in Germany with RB Leipzig, prompting Spurs to spend €60million (£51.8m; $70m) on him last summer.
Xavi should have played a key role for the Netherlands at this summer’s World Cup but suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in April that means he is unlikely to play again until 2027. The setback has provided Xavi with the rare opportunity to spend more time with his family, including his grandmother Rinia, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease around five years ago.
Xavi speaks six languages and has lived in some of the world’s most iconic cities. Rojales is not particularly glamorous but it holds a special place in Xavi’s heart, despite the difficulties his family faced while they lived there. His long-term goal is to buy his former home, but for now, he lives in a multi-storey apartment about half an hour’s drive away.
“When I come back here I’m far away from reality,” he says. “People see me like the little Xavi that they always saw, not the Xavi from Tottenham and the national team. It makes me happy, feeling that the people are proud of me. I can walk down the street without any problem. I’m in peace here.”
The Athletic visited Xavi in his hometown to learn more about his incredible journey.
Xavi was born on his brother Faustino’s seventh birthday, whose Barcelona-themed party was due to take place at the family home but there was a late change of venue.
“The night before I felt something,” Peggy, Xavi’s mother, tells The Athletic. “I called my mum (Rinia) and said, ‘You better go with everybody to a playground’. I gave birth in my room.
“I had a name for him but when we saw the baby I said, ‘It does not match.’ He was so white, no hair, ugly. Faustino was a beautiful baby. Everybody was a little bit shocked. I said, ‘I’m going to change the name, so just say baby Simons’. He had no name for five days. Then I watched Barcelona playing, and I saw Xavi Hernandez on the screen.”
Xavi Simons quickly proved he was worthy of being named after the midfielder who went on to win the World Cup and two European Championships with Spain.
“When he went to kindergarten, he went in full kit, boots and a ball,” Peggy says. “I have videos of Xavi when he is two, explaining technical details about the game. How can a boy of two understand this? He also knew all the badges of the clubs in Holland, the players and the coaches.”
Peggy’s parents, Rinia and John, were both born in the former Dutch colony Suriname on the north-east coast of South America. They moved to the Netherlands to study and pursue work. Peggy grew up in the Netherlands and worked as a check-in clerk for Suriname Airways but decided to move to Spain after regularly visiting a close friend in Barcelona.
Peggy tried to buy a house in the city, “but it was too expensive”, so she turned her attention to Alicante, which was “five times cheaper”. Even though “there was nothing, only orange trees” in Rojales, Peggy bought a small apartment with Rinia. Peggy officially moved in with her mum, younger sister Priscilla and two sons when Xavi was three. All five of them shared the same bed. Peggy wanted her children to experience a new culture and language, but the economic crisis that hit in the late 2000s had a significant impact.
“It was complicated,” Peggy says. “There was no work. I thought maybe I needed to go back (to Amsterdam) but if I go back I have failed, and I am not failing. My mum helped me a lot and my family sent money without asking because I wasn’t going to ask.”
Xavi was oblivious to the problems his family were dealing with. He would attend school each day until 3pm, eat dinner at home before rushing over to a concrete football pitch around the corner. He would spend a couple of hours playing with his friends and have a few scoops of ice cream before training at Club Deportivo Thader’s facilities in the evening.
“I spent the whole day outside and was happy with basic things in life,” Xavi says. “With time I have realised (the living situation) was not normal but my mum had to make sacrifices. I just want to thank her for not showing me how difficult it was. Giving her what I give her means the world to me.
“My mum never had any jealousy towards other people. This was her life and she was always happy. I only have memories of her smiling, even though she was not eating but made sure me and my brother were.”
Xavi’s father, Regillio, is a former footballer who played for Dutch top-flight sides Fortuna Sittard and Willem II. Regillio has not been present in his son’s life, which is why Xavi prefers to be referred to by his first name only. Instead, he looked to Faustino for guidance during his childhood.
“From a young age he had the responsibility of being a man at home and he still feels like that now,” Xavi adds. “I am the one on the pitch and who everyone sees on television, but the real MVPs are my mum, brother and my younger sister (Kenza). I’m really grateful for what they do for me.”
Another important figure from the beginning of Xavi’s life is his first coach. Marcelino played for CD Thader’s senior side and coached some of the youth teams in his spare time.
“From the first training session, I could see Xavi was different,” Marcelino says. “The way he struck the ball, his vision and understanding of the game stood out.
“He had a good relationship with his team-mates but in any exercise he wanted to be the one who scored the most goals or dribbled the best. He was a winner. He always wanted to improve. If he did something wrong, he would do it again until he got it right. If we were losing, he would say, ‘Give me the ball, and I will win us the game’.
“I just tried to keep Xavi as humble as possible. I would play him the same amount of minutes as everyone else and taught him how to be a team player.”
It did not take long for other people to notice Xavi’s ability. Elche, Alicante and Villarreal were all interested in signing him, and Barcelona organised a week-long trial. Peggy kept the trial a secret until she dropped her son off at Barcelona’s training ground.
“After one session, they said, ‘Xavi, you can stay’. So I did my job that day,” he says.
Xavi moved to Barcelona just before he turned seven, but it was not the end of his relationship with Marcelino. Xavi would call his former coach every Monday to discuss how he played on the weekend. They remain in contact and in February, Marcelino attended Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City as Xavi’s guest.
“He was one of the people always trying to supply my boots and helping my family,” Xavi says. “He bought them for me and that’s why I say my whole life I feel like I’m in debt with him because he saved my mum as well in different situations.”
Xavi returns to Rojales every summer. For the last two years, he has hosted a festival where families can take part in a range of activities. He wanted to give something back permanently to the community, which is why he asked the Cruyff Foundation to build a high-quality artificial pitch there.
“I never had that and nowadays (children) have a lot more distractions,” he says. “It’s easy to say, ‘No, I will stay at home on the PlayStation or watch YouTube’. In my time, everyone was outside. Creating good environments so they want to go to is important.
“What are the odds a little guy from Rojales makes it as a professional footballer? It’s really low. That’s the message I want to bring to the kids, even though living here you might not have the opportunities or the infrastructure in big cities like Barcelona and Madrid. Bringing that mentality, you have to work hard and believe. You will have people say to you, ‘No, it’s impossible, why are you going there?’ If you have a dream, go for it.”
For Marcelino, who describes Xavi as like a “little brother”, it makes him feel “happy and proud”.
“Some people, the fame goes to their head and they forget about people from home, but it wasn’t the case with Xavi,” he says. “It’s surprising but in a positive way.”
Barcelona helped Xavi and his family move from Rojales. A month before he joined La Masia in 2010, Xavi’s grandfather John passed away from a heart attack. A couple of years ago, Xavi gifted the rest of his family necklaces that contained a photo of John for Christmas.
“It was a blow, especially for my mum,” Xavi says. “He had a big role in our lives, for me and my brother. I know he is protecting us and is with us. When I put that (necklace) on going into games, he is giving me strength to be here and work hard.”
Xavi thrived at La Masia but it came at a cost. Videos of him playing racked up millions of views across YouTube and he was slapped with the ‘wonderkid’ label. He signed a deal with Nike and received 10 pairs of boots in different colours. Peggy ensured he shared the boots with the rest of his team-mates. By the time he turned 14, he had around one million followers on Instagram.
“They don’t prepare you to be famous,” Xavi says. “I had a lot of positive things but I couldn’t go outside to play with friends because people always wanted something from me or a picture. It was not normal. I had maybe more followers than first-team players but we managed it in the best way possible.
“I’ve missed a lot. When I talk to my sister, she plays tennis and hopefully will become one of the greats, I tell her, ‘Please enjoy that you can walk outside, drink with your friends and have fun because I never had it’.”
It seemed like Xavi was destined to become a star for Barcelona but he left Camp Nou at 16 without making a first-team appearance. In the summer of 2019, he joined PSG and was reunited with Neymar. The Brazilian forward had taken Xavi under his wing during their time together in Spain.
Xavi played regularly for PSG’s under-21s and took part in training with the senior squad. He made six Ligue 1 appearances in the 2021-22 season as PSG won the title under former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino. It would have been easy to allow the attention to go to his head and become complacent.
“You have good days and bad days but I never felt like I dropped my standards. They are non-negotiable and I know my brother will kill me.
“I was with Messi, Mbappe, Neymar, Thiago Silva and Marquinhos every day. I realised this is where I belong and what I need to do to be in the same position as them. Seeing them in the gym every day, not skipping anything: their food, sleep, recovery… it made things click.”
Xavi left PSG in June 2022 to join PSV and soon felt the benefit. Xavi flourished under PSV’s head coach Ruud van Nistelrooy, scoring 22 goals in 48 appearances. He made his debut for the Netherlands in a 3-1 round-of-16 victory over the USMNT at the last World Cup. He then spent two years with RB Leipzig before seizing the opportunity to move to the Premier League with Spurs.
Xavi endured a difficult debut season in north London. He started on the left wing under Thomas Frank before he was slowly trusted to play in his favoured ‘No 10’ role. A red card against Liverpool for accidentally catching his international team-mate Virgil van Dijk forced him to miss three games but he was one of the only in-form players towards the end of Frank’s reign. Xavi’s minutes dropped under Igor Tudor and he only made three appearances for Roberto De Zerbi before injuring his ACL in a 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Xavi recorded two goals and five assists in 28 top-flight matches as Spurs finished 17th for the second successive season. The club have responded by spending over £250m ($330m) on improving their squad this summer, twice breaking their transfer record with the signings of midfielders Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali.
“This season taught me a lot, especially when things were not going well,” he says. “I never experienced this situation. For everyone, it was a wake-up call that things have to go better. More beautiful stuff is waiting for us in the future.”
Xavi ruptured his right ACL in a duel with Wolves defender Hugo Bueno. He tried to continue before being stretchered off the pitch. He says he broke down in tears when the diagnosis was confirmed, knowing he could not help Spurs in their fight against relegation — and would miss the World Cup.
“I called my mum and said, ‘Maybe it is like (Cristian Romero’s) injury where it was only four or five weeks’, but the next day when I did the test I couldn’t walk,” he says. “I received the call from the club and that was the moment everything was sinking.”
Xavi has a date in mind for his return but is trying to stay busy during his rehab. After our conversation, he visits CD Thader’s facilities to do strength and conditioning work. When France beat Morocco 2-0 in the World Cup quarter-finals, he missed the game because he was watching a local youth-team tournament. He has started studying a latte art class, hangs out with his childhood friends from Rojales and plays dominoes.
He plans to watch The Odyssey, this summer’s blockbuster directed by Christopher Nolan. Before every game, Xavi calls his mum and listens to the theme song from Nolan’s 2014 Oscar-winning film Interstellar, which was composed by Hans Zimmer.
“She just tells me to smile. Inside of me, I still have that little kid who loves football and that fire keeps me going. (That theme tune) relaxes me before going onto the pitch. With my style of play, if you put some of my highlights over that song, it will go along well.”
Most importantly, he spent more time with his family who were all in attendance for the launch of the Cruyff Foundation pitch. At the beginning of July, he appeared on Dutch TV with Rinia to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s.
“She forgets a lot of short-term stuff,” he says. “She doesn’t know what she ate today or yesterday but she still knows who we are. At the start it was hard but now we are in a good place. She is happy and gets to spend time with her grandchildren, which is beautiful.”
“I almost want to cry if you ask me this because he is the sweetest one,” says Peggy. “He is very polite and loves people. Everything is the opposite — people think he is arrogant but it’s passion.”
Xavi is enjoying being surrounded by friends and family in Rojales but when he returns to full fitness he should play a big role for Spurs. Earlier this year, De Zerbi described Xavi as a “leader” because he has “the right character to receive the ball when it is hot”. Xavi believes this can be traced back to playing with Faustino and his friends. He would be kicked and fouled by opponents twice his size but it made him stronger.
“De Zerbi told me he wanted to buy me at Brighton,” Xavi says. “The confidence he has given me from day one, that is what I need to be at my best. I know with him I can really achieve the level that I want to.
“I’m not scared of who’s in front of me. I’m not scared if we are winning or losing. I always want to have the ball. I will never hide from it. I always want to make that pass, score that goal, help the team.
“I was scared when I was playing against my brother but now it’s like this is what I was made for. Pressure is what my mum had in her life.”