Timmy Simons

Timmy Simons (born 11 December 1976) is a Belgian professional football coach and a former defensive midfielder who is the manager of Dender EH.

He was known for his tireless work ethic and penalty-taking ability, having scored 48 competitive goals through penalties, missing only 5.

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.

He captained both Club Brugge and PSV Eindhoven, and won the Belgian Golden Shoe in 2002 while playing for Club Brugge.

Simons' career started with KTH Diest, the team where he received his training.

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.

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 an integral part of PSV.

Of the total 49 matches that PSV played in the domestic league, Champions League, Super Cup and Cup, Simons played 48.

Each time, he played the full 90 minutes, becoming an important part of the 2006–07 championship-winning side.

After the departure of Phillip Cocu, he was appointed the captain of PSV in the 2007–08 season.

In PSV's game against Willem II on 6 October 2007, the PSV fans showed their affection towards Simons.

The entire West stand was wrapped in the Belgian flag and a banner was unfurled with the text: "Captain Simons: Our Lion of Flanders".

Simons once again became champion of the Netherlands with PSV in the 2007/2008 season.

His fourth title in a row.

He scored four times in the 2007–08 season.

Together with goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, Simons played the most minutes for PSV, they both missed only one league game and played the other 33 from the beginning to the end.

The defensive midfielder got a solitarily yellow card and not a red card, in the UEFA Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur, he received a yellow card, raising the total amount to six yellow cards in 140 official matches for PSV in his first three seasons.

In his last season at PSV, Simons lost his starting place to youngster Ibrahim Afellay.

Since PSV was in financial trouble and he was one of the big earners of the team, PSV decided to sell Simons on a free transfer to 1. FC Nürnberg.

With his new German team, Simons became very important, both with his leadership qualities and his great playing ability.

For two seasons Simons was the player who played the most in the Bundesliga.

In the 2010–11 season, he did not miss a minute.

Because of his excellent results, he came to the attention of his old Club Brugge team but also of R.S.C. Anderlecht.

In three season with Nürnberg, he finished 6th, 10th and 10th in the Bundesliga.

In 2012, at age 36, Simons was both the outfield player with the most minutes and the most kilometres in the Bundesliga.

Simons' former clubs include Lommel, Club Brugge, PSV Eindhoven and 1. FC Nürnberg.

Simons quieted those speculations by extending his contract until 2014.