Ajax’s American defender Sergino Dest has left the club’s winter training camp in Qatar due to safety fears following the escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran after the killing of Qassem Soleimani.
The 19-year-old Dutch-born USA international requested permission from the reigning Eredivisie champions to leave Qatar as he “did not feel comfortable” in the Middle East, given the events of the last week.
An airstrike sanctioned by President Donald Trump killed top Iranian general Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's powerful Quds Force, which prompted a response from Iran on Tuesday night as numerous missiles were fired into Iraq at two US-Iraqi coalition military bases.
The increasing tensions have already caused disruption to American sport after the US national team elected to cancel a three-week training camp in Doha and remain on home shores, and Dest has now followed suit by leaving the Middle East to return to the Netherlands.
Ajax said Dest asked to leave the camp because "he did not feel comfortable”, which the club said it "understood the request and honoured it."
Dest will continue training with the club's juniors in Amsterdam.
The Ajax squad are currently in Qatar – the 2022 World Cup host – for a training camp and two friendlies during the Eredivisie’s winter break.
Dest, who has a Surinamese-American father and Dutch mother, decided last year to play for the United States instead of the Netherlands.
