Barcelona wonder-kid, Xavi Simons, may be only 14 but he has garnered more followers on social media than almost all Super Eagles players.
Simons, whose father is a former Dutch player and Barcelona fan, was christened after club legend, Xavi Hernandez.
The teen sensation moved to the Catalan club at age seven and has since gone from strength to strength.
Two years ago, he was the subject of an astronomical bid from Chelsea, who were keen to lure the young lad to England.
But his dad, Regillio, passed it on in favour of remaining at the Nou Camp.
He may not necessarily play in the Xavi mould or evoke thoughts of Andrés Iniesta, yet Simons has shown he is truly something special.
His aggressiveness, enthusiasm and ability to control the tempo of play, from the middle, while adding a dash of flair, are simply phenomenal.
Now it appears the teenager’s growing reputation has moved a step further from the pitch to the cyber space.
Xavi boasts over 520K followers on Instagram, a figure extremely impressive having only joined the online service less than two years ago, in December 2015.
Bar Alex Iwobi (651K) and Mikel Obi (550K), the Dutch teenager ranks above all other Nigerian footballers (both past and present).
The closest to him are Kelechi Iheanacho (358K), Obafemi Martins (248K), Ogenyi Onazi (160K) Brown Ideye (150K) and Wilfred Ndidi (106K).
Others are way below the 100K mark.
Indeed, Simons’ posts are not too different from the standard footballer’s social media log; his popularity has not risen by chance or due to an excessive passion to detail his personal life online.
“[Simons] has a lot of followers,” Instagram expert Manuel Moreno told Spanish news outlet, Marca.
“His personal image on social networks is very worked on, edited, with text and graphics.
“I think he has very professional people behind him who manage the account, which could give us an explanation for this boom.”
