Dani Alves sees Sergiño Dest as his successor at Barcelona
The future of the United States international is up in the air with Barcelona, but the Brazilian defender would like him to stay at Camp Nou.
Sergiño Dest is recovering from an injury he suffered towards the end of the 2021/22 season and he was not called up to the United States men’s national team for the international break.
The USMNT defender is one of the players at Barcelona that could leave during the summer transfer window with several clubs showing interested in signing him.
Dest case
Barcelona and coach Xavi Hernández are open to Dest leaving if any team pays his buyout clause that is close to $35 million according to Transfermarkt.
Clubs like Leeds United, Chelsea and FC Bayern Munich have shown interest in the United States international but no formal offers have been made just yet.
The La Liga side are also struggling financially and this is forcing them to ‘sacrifice’ players during the summer transfer window and Sergiño Dest is one of them.
While Dest’s future is up in the air, Dani Alves came out to his defense and the Brazilian sees the American as his natural successor at Camp Nou.
“In my opinion, Sergiño has a lot of talent. At the end the players that succeed are the ones that are not afraid to do something different, that have a lot of personality and I think Dest has all those qualities. When I returned to Barça, Dest came up to me and told me how excited he was to be his teammate for what I did at the club,” said Alves in his FIFA documentary ‘Dani Crazy Dream.’
Last season, Xavi praised the improvement he saw in Dest but injuries prevented him from gaining his full trust. Barcelona are looking to sign César Azpilicueta to cover the right-back position, but if the move doesn’t happen the La Liga side would be happy for the American defender to stay put.