The pre-season provides players with opportunities to prove themselves to the manager and earn a place in the plans for the upcoming campaign. And that will be the case for several Barcelona players who are currently on the tour of the United States of America.
And, as per SPORT, out-of-favour defender Sergino Dest has set himself a challenge to convince manager Xavi Hernandez and earn a place in the Barcelona squad for the next term.
The 22-year-old right-back is back at Barça after spending the last season away on loan at AC Milan, where he endured a poor spell and hardly played in the second half of the campaign.
Considering that he was out of favour under Xavi prior to his departure to Milan, it has been suggested that the Blaugrana will look to offload the USMNT international permanently in the ongoing transfer window.
But, Dest has been named in the squad for the pre-season tour of the USA and is currently training with the team. And, as such, the 22-year-old former Ajax ace has taken it upon himself to prove that he is deserving of another shot with the first team.
To that end, he aims to make the most of whatever opportunities he receives in the four pre-season friendlies that Barcelona are scheduled to play over the next 12 days.
The Catalans kick off their pre-season tour with a fixture against Juventus on Sunday before facing Arsenal and Real Madrid. They will bring down the curtains on the trip with a match against Dest’s former loan club AC Milan.
With Julian Araujo set to join FC Porto on loan imminently, it should pave the way for Dest to get more minutes in the pre-season. And it will be up to him to prove to Xavi that he is deserving of a spot in Barcelona’s squad for the 2023/24 campaign.
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