Rai Quinton Arthur Simons (born 11 January 1996) is a Bermudian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker. He has been

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

six times, and scored one goal for the Bermuda national team in

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

recognised matches. He was joint-top goal scorer at the

2013 Island Games The XV Island Games (also known as the 2013 NatWest Island Games for sponsorship reasons) were held in Bermuda from 13 to 19 July 2013. Bermuda was selected to host the Games by default after Prince Edward Island withdrew from the International Is ...

Men's Football Tournament with three goals.

Club career

Simons started his career at

North Village Rams North Village Rams is a Bermudian professional football club based in Pembroke Parish who participate in the Bermudian Premier Division. History The club, also named ''North Village Community Club'', has won the Bermudian league title eight ti ...

as a youth player. At the age 15, Simons had trials and spent a week training with

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

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, before he eventually signed for Newcastle Town. He was part of the Newcastle Town under-18 team that won the Sentinel Cup in a record 8–1 win over Alsager Town at the

Britannia Stadium The bet365 Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was renamed on 1 June 2016 when the cl ...

, scoring with an "unstoppable shot" having replaced Callum Kenny in the 57th minute as a substitute. He went on to join English

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

club

Ilkeston Ilkeston ( ) is a town located in the Borough of Erewash in Derbyshire, England, with a population of 40,953 at the 2021 census. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/textiles, have now all but disappeared. Part of t ...

in summer 2013, signing a two-year contract with the club. During his time at Ilkeston, Simons played for both the academy and first team sides, before attracting interest from a number of

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

clubs. He was a key member of the Ilkeston team which reached the

Premier Division play-off final in the 2014–15 season. In April 2015, it was announced that Simons had joined League One club Chesterfield. He scored his first Chesterfield goal in a pre-season friendly against his former club Ilkeston, which had been arranged as part of the transfer deal. Simons made his professional debut on 26 September 2015 as a 66th-minute substitute in Chesterfield's 2–1 home defeat to

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club moved its home g ...

. He scored his first professional goal on 10 October in Chesterfield's 3–1 home defeat to Gillingham.

International career

Simons played for Bermuda under-17's in their unsuccessful 2013 CONCACAF U-17 Championship qualifying campaign in July 2012. Whilst studying as a student at

Newcastle-under-Lyme College Newcastle College is further education college in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Providing a wide range of academic, vocational and apprenticeship qualifications from entry to degree level, along with the support services to help ...

, Simons was selected to represent the English Colleges under-17's in January 2013 at the Caput Mundi Tournament in Italy. Simons went on to represent

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, the only

affiliated side at the

. Bermuda went on to win men's football tournament, with a 1–0 win over

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on 15 July 2013 at

Bermuda National Stadium The Bermuda National Stadium (also known as the Bermuda National Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports complex in Devonshire Parish, Bermuda, just to the east of the capital, Hamilton. The stadium was built on what was once a field used as a ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

. Simons scored three goals during the competition, leaving him as joint-top goal scorer along with five other players. In April 2015, he was then called up to the Bermuda under-20's squad for their

2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship qualifying The qualifying competitions for the 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship were handled by two regional of CONCACAF's bodies; the Caribbean Football Union (Caribbean zone) and the Central American Football Union (Central American zone). Representative tea ...

campaign. He scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the group match against Guadeloupe under-20's on 24 June 2014 at Estadio Panamericano, San Cristóbal. Simons was called up and made his full international debut for Bermuda against

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

, in a FIFA sanctioned match, on 7 March 2015 in a friendly. The match finished 2–2, with Simons scoring on his debut before being

substituted Substitution may refer to: Arts and media *Substitution (poetry), a variation in poetic scansion *Substitution (theatre), an acting methodology Music *Chord substitution, swapping one chord for a related one within a chord progression *Tritone ...

in the 81st minute for Antwan Russell. Following his success in two friendlies against Grenada, Simons was called up again to face the

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in the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

matches. He played in both matches, with Bermuda winning 8–0 on aggregate.

Personal life

Simons moved to England when he was 15 and stayed with his cousin, Dale Eve and sister, Taylor in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

where he attended school. His mother is Karen Simons and his father, Arthur Simons was also a footballer who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Bermuda's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Simons goal.''

Honours

Bermuda *

Island Games The Island Games (currently known as the NatWest International Island Games for sponsorship reasons) are biennial international multi-sports events organised by the International Island Games Association (IIGA). Competitor teams each represent ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

References

External links

* *
Chesterfield profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Rai 1996 births Living people People from Hamilton Parish Men's association football forwards Bermudian men's footballers Bermuda men's international footballers Newcastle Town F.C. players Ilkeston F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players North Village Rams players Bermudian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England English Football League players 21st-century British sportsmen