Tottenham midfielder Xavi Simons enrols at Harvard while recovering from injury
Tottenham Hotspur's Xavi Simons has joined a Harvard online course for professional athletes while recovering from a knee ligament rupture. He said football remains his main focus.
Xavi Simons, a midfielder for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur of London, has signed up for a programme at Harvard University in the United States while he recovers from a serious knee injury. The 23-year-old Netherlands international has been out since April, when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that caused him to miss the World Cup.
A course for athletes
Simons has joined Harvard's Crossover into Business programme, which is designed to help professional athletes build commercial skills. It is delivered online and pairs athletes with Harvard MBA (master of business administration) students, who guide them through practical case studies and enterprise management.
On LinkedIn, Simons wrote that he is going back to school. He said he has been trying to use his recovery time as well as possible. Football is still his main focus, he said, but he also wants to keep learning away from the pitch, understand the business side of the game better and learn from people in other industries. Getting back on the pitch remains his number one priority.
The player recently travelled to the United States to step up his physical rehabilitation and visited Harvard's campus in Boston.
Other participants
Previous participants have included players from the NBA, the NFL and tennis, among them former world number one and two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka. In June, Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga took a short Harvard course on the business of entertainment, media and sports after being left out of France's World Cup squad. In 2014, after retiring, former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson took up a long-term teaching position at the university.
