Timmy Simons

Early career

Simons' career started with KTH Diest, the team where he received his training. In 1998 he left for first division Lommel SK, where he quickly established himself in the first team. After a strong second season at Lommel, he moved to Club Brugge in 2000. Simons immediately forced a place in the first team in the 2000–01 season. He grew into a fixture at this Belgian club in no time, quickly growing into the team's penalty taker and, after a few seasons, the captain. In 2002 he was also named as player of the season. With Club Brugge, he became a two-time Belgium national champion and won the Belgian Cup on two occasions.

PSV

Simons was signed from Club Brugge on 29 June 2005, succeeding Mark van Bommel, who left for Barcelona. Before Simons went to PSV, he also negotiated with Feyenoord, on the advice of Bart Goor. Feyenoord, however, found difficult to meet the asking price and moved the transfer on the long-term after the resignation of head coach Ruud Gullit. Club Brugge, therefore, stopped the negotiations. Simons immediately won a starting place at PSV. With PSV he became champion of the Netherlands in the 2005–06 season. Simons soon became the penalty taker of PSV, as he had previously at Club Brugge. In the Eredivisie match against NAC Breda, he missed one of his first penalties in his career. Simons commented: "It was good that it was a wrong penalty, I still have some peace with it". In his second year at PSV, Simons was once again…

Simons made his debut on 30 April 2001 for the Belgium national team in a friendly match away against the Czech Republic, alongside Peter Van der Heyden. He was a regular for the national team and under coach René Vandereycken he became captain. But under Dick Advocaat he was pushed aside. From his first team selection the "somewhat older" Simons was dropped. And the matches after that Advocaat did not call back Simons either. From 2001 to 2011, Simons collected 88 caps. He was recalled under national coach Georges Leekens and also under the reign of Marc Wilmots. After not being selected for the 2014 World Cup, Simons' international career seemed over. Prior to the first international match after this World Cup (a friendly match against Australia) he was honoured alongside Daniel Van Buyten for their merits with the national team. On 13 November 2016 Simons was called for the international match against Estonia, after the injury of Kabasele. In that match, he came on for seven minutes. This made him. at 39 years, 11 months and 2 days the oldest Red Devil ever in an official competition. He is the tenth-most capped player of all time in the Belgium national football team (after Jan Vertonghen, Axel Witsel, Toby Alderweireld, Eden Hazard, Dries Mertens, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Ceulemans), having earned 94 caps. He became the oldest capped player when, at age 39, 11 months and 2 days, he played against Estonia on 13 November 2016.

On 1 July 2018, Club Brugge confirmed that Simons had been hired as assistant manager to Ivan Leko. In June 2019 Brugge confirmed, that Simons would continue at the club as head coach for the U16s. On 19 April 2019 it was confirmed, that Simons had been hired as assistant coach for Zulte Waregem under manager Francky Dury from the upcoming season. On 17 December 2021, Dury was fired and Simons, assisted by former teammate Davy De fauw, was named manager for the rest of the season. In February 2023, Simons was appointed manager of Challenger Pro League side Dender EH. At the end of the season, Simons signed a new two-year contract with the club. He won promotion with Dender in the 2023–24 season which saw the club's return to the Belgian Pro League for the first time since 2009. After clinching that historic promotion, Simons left Dender to take the role of manager at Westerlo on 23 May 2024.

Managerial

As of match played 15 December 2022

Player

Club Brugge

Belgian First Division: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2015–16, 2017–18 Belgian Cup: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2014–15 Belgian Supercup: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2016 Bruges Matins: 2001, 2004 Jules Pappaert Cup: 2005 PSV Eindhoven

Eredivisie: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 Johan Cruyff Shield: 2008 Belgium

FIFA Fair Play Trophy: 2002 World Cup Individual

Man of the Season (Belgian First Division): 2000–01 Belgian Golden Shoe: 2002 Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year: 2002–03 Belgian Fair Play Award: 2002–03 Golden Shoe Lifetime Achievement Award: 2017

Manager

FCV Dender EH

Challenger Pro League runners-up: 2023–24