Moses Simon Biography
Moses Simon Daddy-Ajala MON is a professional football player from Nigeria who was born on July 12, 1995. He plays forward or left side for Ligue 1 club Nantes and the Nigeria national team.
Club Career
His father was born in Jos and retired from the Nigerian Army. The famous GBS school is where Simon learned to play football. Ahmed Musa and other famous football players went to that school.
Many major teams around the world wanted to sign him, including Kaduna United of the Nigerian Premier League. It was reported on May 10, 2013, that Simon had signed a pre-contractual agreement with Dutch club Ajax to train with them before the season started.
Simon had been linked with Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur before this. He played his first game for Ajax in a pre-season friendly against De Graafschap on July 13, 2013, coming on as a replacement and scoring the game’s third and final goal in the 64th minute. Ajax won 3–0 on the road.
On July 17, he played again, this time for the Jong Ajax reserves in a pre-season game against Voorschoten ’97. He scored the second goal in the 5–0 home win. On July 25, 2013, Ajax said they would not sign the young Nigerian player, so they took him off the preseason squad.
After that news came out, talks began with AS Trenčín, an Ajax partner team in Slovakia that is owned by Tschen La Ling, a former Ajax player. As TrenÍín. Simon signed a three-year deal with the Slovak team Trenčín on January 13, 2014.
He was going to join his friend Kingsley Madu. In their first league game, a 1–1 draw with MFK Košice, he started on the right wing with Gino van Kessel, who was on loan from Ajax. He played his first game for his country’s club team in the UEFA Europa League during the 2014–15 season.
It was a home game against Vojvodina Novi Sad from Serbia in the second qualifying round of the tournament. The game took place at a stadium in Dubnica, Slovakia. In the 4–0 win at home, Simon got three goals on his first game. To be eliminated in the next round, AS Trenčín had to draw at home and lose 2–1 on the road to Hull City.
In October 2014, ESPN Sports put together a spy report on Moses Simon. The report said that the winger could move to Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Hull City, or even go back to Ajax. Dutch club Heerenveen and Gent went into a bidding war over the winger. In the end, Gent signed a deal with the player that kept him for three years.
The news came out on January 6, 2015, that Gent had signed Moses Simon to a three-year deal. In a league game on January 17, 2015, Gent beat Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz 3–1. It was his first game for the team. Four days later, he played in his second game, a 1-0 home win over Lokeren in the Belgian Cup.
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Simon was sent off 30 seconds after he came on. Simon got a hat trick in his third league game, which was also against Sporting Lokeren. He was then named Belgian league player of the week.
He became an important part of coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s team very quickly. In May 2015, he helped Gent win their first national championship.
After two months, Simon helped Laurent Depoitre score the game-winning goal in the 2015 Belgian Super Cup against Club Brugge, who won the cup.
Simon signed a five-year deal with Spanish La Liga team Levante on August 6, 2018. He told them in March 2019 that he was happy to be on the team.
International Career
Simon was first called up to the Nigeria national team by coach Daniel Amokachi in March 2015. He played his first game for the team on March 25, 2015, when he came in for Anthony Ujah after 59 minutes in a friendly against Uganda. Simon got his first goal for Nigeria in a friendly match against Niger on September 8, 2015.
It was the second goal in a 2–0 win. He was chosen by Nigeria to be on their 35-person potential Olympic team for 2016.
He was added to Nigeria’s preliminary 30-person team for the 2018 World Cup in Russia in May 2018. He did not make the final 23 though because he was hurt. He was picked to play for his country in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.