The USMNT have had some shaky appearances as of late, but while the team may be floundering on the field, they had a massive off-field win this week by landing young Ajax star Sergiño Dest.
The 18-year-old Dest has both Dutch and American citizenship, and while he was born in the Netherlands, he has played for the United States youth national teams growing up, and has two caps for the senior team.
It was only when he shot up into Ajax’s first team as a right back in the last year that the Netherlands have made a strong push for him to join their ranks. FIFA allows players to make a one-time switch if they have dual citizenship, so even though Dest had played for the USMNT, he had the option to don the orange for Holland.
On Monday, he announced his decision to stay with the USMNT on the Ajax team Twitter account.
Dest joins a core of young players including Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Josh Sargent, Timothy Weah, Paxton Pomykal and others who the U.S. will hope to build around moving forward.
USMNT fans were excited. This is the biggest win they’ve had in a while.
