Sergiño Dest: I Want to stay and prove myself at Barcelona

United States right-back Sergiño Dest mentioned he intends to battle for his place at Barcelona after an ill-fated mortgage spell at AC Milan final season.

“I see myself staying,” Dest mentioned Friday, forward of Barcelona’s preseason tour within the U.S. “Obviously, I have to prove myself during the preseason. I’m fully focused on myself at the moment, so it’s up to me and I feel like I can and I will prove it. My mindset is to stay here and to have a really nice season.”

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Dest did not delve deeply right into a dialog he had with Barca supervisor Xavi Hernandez about his future, however mentioned he got here away from it wanting to stay at Spotify Camp Nou.

“He just told me, ‘I’ll give you a fair chance to prove yourself,'” Dest mentioned. “So that’s what it is at the moment. He told me, ‘I think you have qualities, but it’s up to you, you have to show me,’ and I fully agree.

“So I suppose that is all up to me. I suppose I have some qualities that may be good for the crew, however I have to present it and be constant.”

Barcelona has a shortage of established options at right-back behind last season’s first choice Jules Koundé, who prefers to play in the center of defense.

Earlier this week, Barcelona president Joan Laporta commented on the situation, saying, “We are lacking a right-back and we’re engaged on it.”

Barca signed Dest from Ajax for $20 million in 2020 and he had an encouraging first season, making 41 appearances across all competitions under former coach Ronald Koeman. However, after injury issues and Koeman’s dismissal, Dest lost his place in the team in the second half of the 2021-22 season.

Dest initially wanted to stay at Barcelona last season, but after being left out of the team in the first three games, he departed on loan for Milan, where he managed just 14 appearances in all competitions.

After starting all four games for the U.S. men’s national team at the World Cup, Dest played just five matches the rest of the season for Milan in what he acknowledged was a challenging period.

“It’s a very tough second in my profession, in my life as nicely,” Dest said. “And clearly whenever you get moments like that, you be taught rather a lot from it. So for me, I obtained mentally approach stronger.

“You can look at it at two ways. You can look at it in the negative way: Everything is going bad so you want to quit. Or you just try to find a positive way in the negative things that happened.

“So that was my type of factor that I did. I at all times appeared at it optimistic and I was like, ‘OK, at the second I’m not taking part in, not going so nicely, however at these occasions I can simply work on myself.'”

Barcelona will play 4 pleasant matches within the U.S. as a part of the Soccer Champions Tour: Juventus in Santa Clara, California (July 22); Arsenal in Inglewood, California (July 26); Real Madrid in Arlington, Texas (July 29); and AC Milan in Las Vegas (Aug. 1).