Sergino Dest coming to America is a game changer for USMNT

Segino Dest has chosen America over his home country, which could signal a huge change for the USMNT.

Victories, at least notable ones, have been few and far between for the US Men’s National Team this year, but they got one on Monday. Gregg Berhalter’s team, still simmering from the shock CONCACAF Nations League defeat to Canada two weeks ago, weren’t even in action, but with just one tweet, and an accompanying press release, the outlook got a little brighter.

Indeed, Monday saw Sergino Dest, widely considered one of the sport’s brightest young full backs, choose to play for the USMNT over the country of his birth, the Netherlands. There had been a tug-of-war between the two nations for the services of the 18-year-old who has become a first team figure for Ajax this season. Few expected the USA to win it.

Not since Julian Green was persuaded to play for the USMNT over Germany has US Soccer bagged such a prodigious talent through its programme of naturalisation. Of course, Green, who had been a promising teenager at Bayern Munich and scored for the USA in the last 16 of the 2014 World Cup, never flourished into the player so many believed he would become. Dest, however, could be an even brighter prospect and his naturalisation could be an even bigger coup.

To truly grasp just how big a victory this is for the USA it’s important to understand the context. Dest was born and raised in Amsterdam. He plays for Ajax, the most successful club in the country which just so happens to boast a proven track record in the production of soccer superstars. And the Netherlands are seen to be on the brink of another golden generation with the likes of Virgil Van Dijk, Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong making them one of the favourites for next summer’s European Championships.

And yet Dest has turned his back on all this to play for the USMNT at their lowest ebb in recent history, just two years after their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and just a few weeks after a defeat so bad the entire direction of the country’s soccer programme has subsequently been questioned and scrutinised.

“Of course, it was a tough decision for me when the Dutch men’s national team showed their interest,” the teenager, who has a Surinamese-American father and Dutch mother, explained in an effort to provide some background to his surprise decision, “but I have built up a very good feeling with Team USA over the last couple of years and I strongly believe in the plans and potential of US Soccer.”

Not many others are as positive about the direction of American soccer as Dest is, but his naturalisation gives the USMNT another building block for the future. Between the Ajax full back, Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, the US now boasts a number of young prospects who should be at the top of the game for years to come. There is a strong core to build around.

Dest hadn’t even visited the United States until a trip to New York City in 2014 and hadn’t considered playing for the country until a phone call from Dave van den Bergh, a former US Under-20s coach who played for Ajax in the 1990s. The discovery of Dest as a potential USMNT player came from van den Bergh simply enquiring whether the Amsterdam club had any Americans on their books.

From this, Dest was inducted into US Soccer’s youth system, representing the country at U-17 and U-20 level. It was this ground work that eventually led Dest to choose the USA over the Netherlands. Even still, it’s impossible to avoid the sense that Dest is an accidental USA star. Everything should have geared him towards a future with the Oranje rather than the Stars and Stripes. Americans should be thankful that for whatever reason it didn’t.