Sergino Dest was reportedly on the radar of both Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund this summer, but is now set for a move to Serie A.
AC Milan is finalizing the acquisition of Dest on a season-long loan spell from Barcelona, Calcio Mercato among other outlets reported Wednesday. Dest’s loan deal will also include a purchase option, which would include a four-year contract at the San Siro.
Dest, 21, has not dressed in Barcelona’s opening three La Liga matches of the season with manager Xavi set to move on from the right back. The former Ajax defender logged 31 combined appearances last season for Barcelona, registering four assists, but injuries also hampered Dest’s playing time.
Dest scored three goals and added five assists in 72 combined appearances for Barcelona following his transfer from Ajax in 2020.
A move to AC Milan gives Stefano Pioli a new option in his 4-2-3-1 formation. Alessandro Florenzi and Davide Calabria are the current right backs in AC Milan’s squad, while Dest can also play left back if needed.
AC Milan hosts rivals Inter Milan on September 3 before opening its Champions League schedule on Sept. 6 at Red Bull Salzburg.
“dest can also play LB” hahahaha
now i believe for true defenders the wing footedness thing is nonsense but if your virtue is getting forward they need to be on the good foot and they are not natural defenders wrong side.
after a series of players making smart moves modulating down their destinations, this is one of the few perseverating type moves trying to stay “big club.” but i think GB has his mind made up on him and jedi.
Business tip for Xavi: when you’re trying to sell an asset and you only have a few days to sort it out, don’t do these things:
– tell the world you don’t see any value in it
– tell the world you really need the money
– tell the world your alternative is to keep paying for it and not use it.
I’m glad he is better at short passes than negotiating. Not too impressed with Barcelona’s management of this situation (not alone in that I guess)
Super happy for Dest, who seems like a genuinely nice guy.
Yeah I agree, Xavi was very unprofessional handling Dest.
So excited for this. Serie A has become a very fun league to watch and I have been an AC Milan fan for many years. Can’t wait to see an American in the Black and Red. Really wanted Pulisic to go to AC Milan too. I know they have been Monitoring Weah and we’re inquiring about Aaronson before he signed with Leeds. Hope to see more Americans at AC Milan in the future.
“Serie A has become a very fun league to watch”
Well, for those few who can watch it at all. There again, CBS seems to have bought up the rights — another dog in the manger — but CBSSN is premium cable and Paramount+ is yet another needless streaming subscription. So Serie A on normal TV essentially never even happens, and Kate Abdo (is she even still there?) is wasted on a very small, very rich niche audience.
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Especially in this year when inflation and recession are making families think twice about every dollar, it shouldn’t be too hard to understand that millions of American soccer fans, including the youngest grass-roots players who are most important to the development of the sport and the viewing audience, will probably not be watching any European soccer that requires an extra subscription. To make soccer a popular sport in the US, it needs to be broadcast on TV for everyone, not just for elites who have broadband and can afford multiple streaming subscriptions.
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Sorry, Sergiño. Good luck in the untelevised wasteland, and we’ll hope to see you next in Qatar.
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What are you talking about? Are you saying it should be on network CBS? That would never happen. If that was CBS’s only option they never would have bought the rights in the first place. Good lord, streaming has now allowed fans to watch games from pretty much every country in the world. Games that we had zero access to only 5 years ago.
Go check out an NFL game. Not sure what you definition of “elites” is, but those guys pay a lot for tickets and gear.
If soccer (particularly MLS) wants to target 100% of the US, there are a lot of cheaper things they can do, like getting rid of John Champion’s ridiculous commentary and dispensing with the rest of the faux-Europeanism and face-touching that turns a lot of Americans off.
The soccer quality is getting better, but all of the affectation is killing its changes with a broad US audience.
personally i’m with you. i’ve been following la liga, that’s espn+ most nights, and that’s a black hole for many fans here. i have had some interest in SPL and serie A but this sort of thing puts that also behind a paywall. i prefer something like the EPL setup where some games make TV and you get peacock for free for the rest with the right cable. i think the situation is worse than when you had FSC and others with cable games and over the course of replays could watch most/all of each major league on some channel every week. like you’re saying, most of us are already paying for cable.
side point, they’re doing the same thing with normal TV, a lot of good shows, the company that owns the cable or streaming channel has a network but you’re watching 20 variations on FBI or CSI or game shows and the good stuff is behind the paywall on cable or streaming. football and other sports are moving more and more behind the paywall.