Sergino Dest’s future with La Liga champions Barcelona remains in doubt, but two English Premier League clubs are reportedly interested in making a move for the young fullback.
Fulham and Crystal Palace are both linked with Dest ahead of a potential transfer this summer, Mundo Deportivo reported Sunday. Dest, who spent last season on loan at Serie A side AC Milan, returned to his parent club earlier this summer.
The 22-year-old struggled for playing time in Milan, making just 14 combined appearances across all competitions.
Dest was originally acquired by Barcelona in 2020 from Dutch Eredivisie club Ajax and has proceeded to total 72 combined appearances. Barcelona has reportedly dropped its asking price for Dest to roughly €17 million (£15m/$19m) in order to recoup funds this summer.
Born in the Netherlands, Dest has earned 25 caps for the U.S. men’s national team to date, registering two goals and four assists.
A move to either Fulham or Crystal Palace would unite Dest with current USMNT teammates. Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson are currently starters in the Fulham backline while Chris Richards is part of the Crystal Palace defensive corps.
Both London clubs are set to begin their new league schedules on August 12 with Fulham visiting Everton and Crystal Palace taking on newly-promoted Sheffield United.
Crystal Palace would be my preference over Fulham. I like the idea of Richards & Dest developing a strong partnership at the same club; similar to what Jedi & Ream have developed the past season (+). In the short term Jedi, Ream, Richards, & Jedi are likely our starting back 4 for the USMNT. The left side partnership is already strong….if we can strengthen the right side partnership similarly that will make the overall defense pretty stout….especially once Adams is back healthy.
KEEP HIM MILAN! Dest is phenomenal he’s ridiculously underrated
The loan ended June 30.
Robinson, Dest, Musah, and (1 more year??) Ream
Wonderful attacking potential from Dest. Hope that wherever he goes, he works on tightening up his defense.
Out of those two…. Fulham. Would be cool to see Robinson on the left and Dest on the right for club and country.
Either place would be a good place resurrect his career. I still think he’d be a great replacement for Guerreiro at Dortmund.
The talent is there.
He needs to go somewhere where the manager actually believes in him and has a role for him. He went to Barca in the first place because Koeman had all kinds of plans for him.
Once he was fired it was only a matter of time before Dest went
He’d slot in well for Guerreiro.
BVB had put up GIO for sale but now rumor has it that they are backing off of that. They have lost a lot of creative midfield in the offseason and unless they have something better in the wings keeping Gio around for at least one more season makes a lot of sense. They are also rumored to be interested in Weston.
If true, he’s no Bellingham but they could still use the best version of Weston.
Dest , Gio and Weston together at BVB would be very useful for the USMNT.
Guerrero is a lefty. He only plays on the left for club and country. The Bundesliga doesn’t have a lot of right footed players at LB. Scally played on the left because of injuries. Right footed players can survive playing left wingback because they are still able use their dominant foot. Dest only uses his left foot in his dribbling cadence like in the ‘Cashico’ match. History shows right footed players suck at LB. 2 exceptions – Joao Cancelo & Philip Lahm. Dejuan Jones uses his left with regularity. Great for the MLS. If he goes to a more competitive league, he isn’t playing LB. I hope this mental gymnastics is too hard to understand.
IO2T,
“Guerrero is a lefty. He only plays on the left for club and country.”
That’s nice but Dest is not Raphael.
” The Bundesliga doesn’t have a lot of right footed players at LB.”
That’s because most soccer players are right footed.
Did I say Dest should play LB?
BVB need creativity in their midfield. Dest might be useful there or wherever they want to play him. BVB have played Thorgan Hazard, a right footer, at left wingback.
With Guerreiro and Meunier ( their starting RB going back to Club Brugge) from last season’s starters gone, BVB needs new options.
And if they put Dest at left back/wingback there’s no reason he can’t succeed.
“Scally played on the left because of injuries. Right footed players can survive playing left wingback because they are still able use their dominant foot. Dest only uses his left foot in his dribbling cadence like in the ‘Cashico’ match. ”
Yeah? Is there a law against having a right footed left wing or full back? I’m sure there are advantages to being a left footer at left back but it doesn’t mean a right footer can’t play there.
“History shows right footed players suck at LB. 2 exceptions – Joao Cancelo & Philip Lahm. Dejuan Jones uses his left with regularity. Great for the MLS. If he goes to a more competitive league, he isn’t playing LB. I hope this mental gymnastics is too hard to understand.”
History? You history is little incomplete. Arguably the best left back who ever played was Paola Maldini, notably a right footer.
My second favorite LB was Giacinto Fachetti, notably a right footer. My other favorite right footed left backs include Denis Irwin, Gianluca Zambrotta and Javier Zanetti. There are others such as Cezar Azpilicueta or Danilo. As for a right footed left back who won the World Cup, Andreas Brehme was another right footed left back( JK’s team mate.).
All the guys I mentioned were at least MLS capable, the current USMNT standard.
It all depends on how BVB wants to set up. And losing Guerreiro, and especially Bellingham, there’s a good chance BVB is going to set up differently.
You’re saying you don’t like Dest at leftback, which is fine, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible, unlikely or even a bad idea.