Xavi Simons: TRUTH about Barcelona, the original WONDERKID & Why Spurs feel different - The Sports Agents

**Xavi Simons** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.
You have really good things in the story, the things that are not so nice. I lost a lot of my childhood because I was not a normal kid. I knew from an early age kids will hang around me just because I was Xavi Simons. Man, I really cannot make anything. He said to me, you are now under my wing. If you need something, call me. I had no friends in Barcelona. People, they don't know what happened inside all this stuff. At the time, I chose not to speak. I wouldn't say I closed the door, but I'm really happy in Tottenham. I think we've been into the worst possible scenario. I want to bring joy to the fans as well because they've been through difficult rollercoasters. The footballers' lives go so fast.
You never think this can happen to me.

**Gabby Logan** (0:56)
The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.

**Xavi Simons** (1:03)
I'm 8 years old and I'm playing for Barça. Well, three months.

**Gabby Logan** (1:09)
At 8 years old, Xavi Simons already had millions watching.
Barcelona raised him, social media made him famous. By 16, he had more than 2 million followers, had starred alongside Neymar in night commercials, and was sharing a dressing room with Lionel Messi. But Xavi's path from prodigy to professional was anything but smooth. Now, after a serious injury, ended a difficult first Premier League season with spurs and cost him a place at the World Cup, Xavi Simons has been given something he's never had before. Time. Time to reflect on his Barcelona exit and time to define the player he wants to be.
Xavi, thank you so much for agreeing to chat on The Sports Agents. It's great to meet you. I suppose the first question is, how is everything after your operation and your rehab and how's it all going?

**Xavi Simons** (2:02)
No, first of all, thank you for having me here.
No, everything is going good, feeling good. I'm in a good stage right now, on my knee, happy with my family and yeah, that's where I am right now.

**Gabby Logan** (2:13)
Now, listeners to this podcast will know, I like to share my own sporting experiences. So I had an ACL, don't laugh, because I wasn't doing elite sport. I fell down a mountain skiing. So I know you can't rush it, can you? It's one of those things that you have to kind of pace yourself. Are you exactly where you want to be at this point?

**Xavi Simons** (2:31)
Yeah, especially when they tell you how long this injury is. And for me, the first two days was really hard. But after that, I told to myself as well to put the pressure really, really high to myself. And I'm seeing like everyday improvements. And that's something that makes me really happy. So I'm stuck into that.

**Gabby Logan** (2:54)
The first time in your career that you've had to stop like this because of an injury. And you must have seen teammates over the years have the same or similar injury. Have you reacted how you expected to as a person?

**Xavi Simons** (3:08)
Through the years, I've seen a lot of players getting injured and you never think like, OK, this can happen to me. So yeah, this came to me and the two days, first days was really hard, especially because at the moment that we were with the club, with Tottenham and the World Cup was coming as well for me. And I've played one World Cup, but this World Cup was a little bit different because I really could help the team to achieve the goal.
But yeah, it is what it is. And after that, I took it in a positive way.

**Gabby Logan** (3:42)
How quickly, a few days, you managed to turn your mindset into something positive. Tell me a little bit about that process.

**Xavi Simons** (3:48)
Yeah, the process is, yeah, especially when it happened on the pitch, the first reaction is, oh, the World Cup. That was my first reaction.

**Gabby Logan** (3:58)
Did you know immediately?

**Xavi Simons** (4:00)
My first reaction was that, and after the officials came and we were speaking, and I asked them, please, let me try once. I want to see if it happened because my whole life I've been playing and obviously you receive kicks and you fall down and you have a little bit of pain and then you stand up and it's all okay. So in my head was like, okay, something happened, but I want to try it once.
And when I did like the two steps, I felt like my knee went out and it came back. So when that happened, I knew like, no, something was off. And yeah, the first two days was really hard because obviously the club is redoing all the tests and stuff like this. So they tell me what they see and they told me like, yeah, this is the worst scenario that could happen. And it's an ACL injury. And when I heard that for me was, yeah, the whole world came into my body. So yeah, it was really hard. But after that, I was with my mom and my sister and my brother. And my mom just said to me, Xavi, we have to look forward. You're still young. You can play a lot of tournaments.