Xavi Simons Enrolled at Harvard While Out Injured, Nine Months After His World Cup Heartbreak

• Tottenham midfielder Xavi Simons has enrolled on Harvard University’s Crossover into Business programme while he continues his recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament injury that forced him to miss the World Cup.
• The course pairs professional athletes with Harvard MBA students for practical case studies and enterprise management, and has previously included players from the NBA, NFL and tennis.
• Simons travelled to Boston to visit Harvard’s campus while stepping up his physical rehabilitation, and says football remains his “number one priority.”

“I’m Going Back to School”

Xavi Simons has enrolled on a course at Harvard University while he continues his recovery from a long-term knee injury that cost him a place at the World Cup. The 23-year-old Netherlands playmaker has been sidelined since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in April, and has now joined Harvard’s Crossover into Business programme, a course built for professional athletes to develop their commercial skills.

The online course pairs athletes with Harvard MBA students, who mentor them through practical case studies and enterprise management. “I’m going back to school,” Simons wrote on LinkedIn. “During my recovery, I’ve been trying to use my time in the best way possible. Football is still my main focus, but I also want to keep learning and improving away from the pitch.”

“I’ve always been interested in more than just football. I want to understand the business side of the game better, learn from people in different industries and keep developing as a person,” he added. Simons recently travelled to the United States to step up his physical rehabilitation while visiting Harvard’s campus in Boston. “Getting back on the pitch is still my number one priority,” he said. “At the same time, I want to use this period to keep learning and invest in myself beyond football. Looking forward to getting started.”

Classmates From the NBA, the NFL and Centre Court

Simons is not the first footballer to turn an injury layoff into a classroom opportunity. Previous participants on the Crossover into Business programme have included players from the NBA, the NFL and tennis, including former world number one and two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka. In June, Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga took a short course at Harvard on the business of entertainment, media and sport after being left out of France’s World Cup squad.

There is precedent closer to home, too. In 2014, following his retirement, former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson took up a long-term teaching position at the university. For a generation of players whose careers can end abruptly through injury, form or a manager’s decision, the idea of building a second skill set while still contracted to a club has become a recognisable path rather than an eccentric one.

A Season Interrupted

Simons scored five times for Tottenham last season before the injury struck in April, and his absence from the World Cup squad cost the Netherlands one of their most creative midfielders. Spurs have had to manage without him for the best part of a year, and his return date remains tied to the pace of his physical recovery rather than any fixed calendar.

Simons joined Tottenham from RB Leipzig in 2025 in a deal worth more than £51m, arriving with a reputation as one of the most inventive young attacking midfielders outside the traditional big-money leagues after making his name on loan from Paris St-Germain in the Bundesliga. He beat Chelsea to the signing and took the number seven shirt vacated by Son Heung-min, and was quickly installed as a creative focal point before the injury in April cut his first Tottenham season short. Spurs have missed his passing range and his eye for a final ball in his absence, qualities that no replacement signing has fully reproduced.

For now, the Harvard programme gives Simons something to build toward that does not depend on a scan or a fitness test. Whether it changes how he approaches the rest of his playing career, or simply fills the hours a top-level athlete suddenly has when the pitch is taken away, the midfielder has made clear which one comes first. Football remains the priority. Everything else, for now, is what he is doing while he waits to get back to it.

The Netherlands reached the World Cup without him this year, with the national team forced to reshape its attacking options at short notice after the injury ruled Simons out months before the tournament. For a player who had established himself as a first-choice creator, watching the finals from home rather than playing in them was, by his own account, one of the harder stretches of the recovery. Enrolling at Harvard has given that stretch a shape and a purpose it did not have before.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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