Sergino Dest explains why he chose Barcelona over Bayern Munich

During the last transfer window, Bayern Munich was duking it out with Barcelona for the signature of American international Sergino Dest. At the time, Bayern was also interested in Norwich City’s Max Aarons as they were looking for a right back to serve as a backup and/or fill-in for Benjamin Pavard. Bayern ultimately wound up signing Bouna Sarr from Olympique Marseille just before the window closed, but Dest was number one on the list, so it was a bit of a blow to lose out to Barcelona.

In a recent interview, Dest explained why, exactly, he decided to choose Barcelona instead of Bayern Munich (Az). “FC Barcelona was the club of my dreams. I’ve always wanted to play for Barca at one point or another and then I got the opportunity,” the 20-year-old said.

Dest was well aware of the interest from Bayern and really intrigued by the opportunity to be involved with the treble winners. However, in the end, he said he listened to his heart to help him make his final decision on where he wanted to go. “Bayern Munich still existed, it wasn’t an easy decision. They are both great teams, but then I listened to my heart and said to myself that Barcelona was the place for me. That’s why I went to Barca,” he explained.

Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

Since making the move from Ajax to the Catalans, Dest has featured a total of 21 times for Barcelona and even scored his first goal for the club in a 4-0 win over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League group stages at the end of November. U.S. Men’s National Team manager Gregg Berhalter has certainly been keeping tabs on how consistently Dest has been playing and starting as well.

Barcelona currently holds the third spot in the La Liga table, but the club is also on the verge of announcing bankruptcy ahead of their presidential elections. The financial future of the club is in serious jeopardy, but there’s no way Dest could’ve foreseen that when he made the decision to go there instead of Bayern.