Sergino Dest has been included in Ajax’s Champions League roster for the third round of qualifying.
The club made the announcement on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s first leg against Greek side PAOK Thessaloniki FC. Ajax will host the second leg in the Netherlands on Aug. 13th.
Dest made his full senior debut for the club in a 2-0 win over PSV in the Dutch Super Cup. He came close to scoring his first senior goal which unfortunately went off the post.
The 19-year-old was on the bench this past weekend as Ajax tied Vitesse Arnhem 2-2 in their Eredivisie opener.
He has starred for Ajax in preseason which persuaded head coach Erik ten Hag to keep him with the first team.
Dest is one of two American players currently participating in Champions League qualifying, joining Club Brugge goalkeeper Ethan Horvath.
What about Pierie?
Yeah, there’s no limit to U-23s on the CL roster, so why not include Dest?
wow didn’t realize Ajax had to go through qualifying.
seems pretty harsh after a semi finish last season.
i’m surprised UCL puts all the weight on the league/club coefficients and don’t add a few points for advancing far the previous tourney.
So it’s because they didn’t win the league and because the Dutch league is ranked out of the top ten leagues or something like that. It was a crazy thing I read but leagues like the Turkish league and a few others are ahead of them. They’re 14th or 16th best league in Europe? Someone definitely needs to fact check me but that’s the reason as to why they need to qualify for CL group stages.
I still remember them having to change the rules for Liverpool after they beat Milan, but finished 6th or something in the Premier league… and they would have missed out entirely. Weird shit happens in Europe.