Official: Sergiño Dest signs with Barcelona

One of the biggest transfers in American soccer history is complete. Sergiño Dest has signed a 5-year deal with Barcelona, completing a reported €25 million transfer from Ajax to the Camp Nou. Ajax will receive €21 million in installments from Barcelona, with an additional €5 million due if Dest meets certain performance metrics. His buyout clause was set at €400 million.

Dest traveled to the Catalan capital yesterday to undergo a medical and sign the contract, keeping him at the Camp Nou until 2025. It completes an incredible competition between Barcelona and Bayern Munich to sign the 19-year-old American right back. ESPNFC reported that Ajax and Barcelona have a good working relationship stemming from Frenkie de Jong moving from Ajax to Barcelona in 2019, and that helped pushed the negotiations along for Dest. Barcelona confirmed the signing Thursday with a simple video:

The United States Men’s National Team fullback now moves to the Camp Nou, where he could be looked at to start for the Blaugrana now that Nelson Semedo has moved on to Wolverhampton. He will mostly compete with Sergi Roberto for the starting right back job. Sergiño Dest will, in all likelihood, become the first American player to appear for Barcelona’s first team in a regular season match. Konrad de la Fuente has appeared mainly for Barcelona’s youth teams, and while he made a couple appearances for the first team during preseason, earning the praise of Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman, he will remain with the reserve team for the beginning of the season.

Ajax said their goodbyes to Dest on Thursday with a call back to his younger days at the club:

For Sergiño Dest, he now joins Lionel Messi and several other world class players in the Barcelona lineup. What a remarkable transfer for him and a historic day for American soccer.