Wessel Antes
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Sergiño Dest, full-back of PSV, has added color to the Eredivisie since his return to the Netherlands. The Eindhoven team is renting the 23-year-old Almeerder from FC Barcelona this season and has the option to take him over permanently next summer. In conversation with The Telegraph Dest looks back on his transfer to PSV and the course of the first half of the season.
Dest, who wore the Ajax shirt between 2012 and 2020, has not yet won a national champion in his career. The 32-time international of Team USA had a clear goal in mind with his transfer to PSV.
“The urge to become champion was very great,” said Dest. “I think it is certainly possible when you see how we play. We have a lot of fun on the field, we keep each other sharp week in week out. We are having a fantastic season. We are first and have not lost a point in the competition and are through in the Champions League. I couldn't have wished for anything better. It is now important to keep it going.”
Many Ajax supporters hoped for a return to Amsterdam last summer, but Dest is playing his matches for the Brabant arch-rival this season. The right winger does not blame Ajax for not contacting his management. “I don't really have an opinion about that. There was a new board and they decide. I do like to hear that many people think that Ajax should have brought me back.”
A return to the Eredivisie was initially not in the pipeline. “To be honest, in the beginning I didn't have the attitude to go back to the Netherlands at all, but I suddenly got such a good feeling. I needed the warmth that the people of PSV gave me in my career. Feeling good again and really feeling at home. Then from there I can show myself again.”
PSV can permanently acquire Dest from Barcelona next summer for around 10 million euros. It is very likely that the Eindhoven leader will choose this. The attractive Dest is an important force this season under trainer Peter Bosz, who is very charmed by his qualities.
Dest already played nineteen official matches for PSV in the first half of the season, half of the number of matches (38) he played for Ajax before switching to Barça. He ultimately played 72 official matches for the Catalan superpower, in which Dest scored 3 goals and 4 assists. Last season, the American international played on loan for AC Milan.
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