USMNT Defender & Rising Star Sergino Dest Leaves Ajax To Sign 5-Year Contract At Barcelona

 

    It wasn't that long ago that a USMNT player going to Europe to compete for any half decent club-let alone one of the great powerhouses-was big news. 2020 has been a nightmare in basically every way possible but at least thanks to social media and cable TV packages, we are able to watch the best American players compete every week throughout Europe and far away from the mediocrity and utterly boring nature of MLS. Following in the footsteps of Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Tyler Adams (Red Bull Leipzig), Gio Reyna (Dortmund), Weston McKennie (Juventus) and Chris Richards (Bayern Munich) among many others, today fullback Sergino Dest agreed to a five-year deal with Barcelona.

    I can't pretend that I know all that much about Dest in terms of seeing him compete that often. Ajax matches are hard to find unless they are deep into the Champions League and as we all know, the USMNT has barely had any games this year due to the global pandemic. However, reading about him from many trusted soccer writers around the globe, it sounds like there is much to be excited about for this 19-year-old who grew up in the Netherlands but chose to represent the USMNT rather than the Dutch. Take that Arjen Robben! 

      The rumors started to creep up last week that he was choosing between Barcelona and Bayern Munich for his next destination. What a life, huh? Unless you've been paying close attention this year, you'd probably be surprised to hear that Bayern is actually a notch above Barca at the moment. With yesterday's German Super Cup win over Borussia Dortmund, that gave Bayern five (!) trophies this year. Additionally, their roster is more loaded than Barcelona's. Of course this is not to say that Barcelona is merely a consolation prize. Any chance to count one of the best players in soccer history as a teammate-a still in-his-prime Lionel Messi-you jump at that opportunity.  

    Barcelona has turned some of its aging roster (adios Luis Suarez and Arutro Vidal) over since watching its chief rival Real Madrid win La Liga earlier this summer and then getting absolutely destroyed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals. Ajax used to be one of the top clubs in the world and they've started to regain some of that notoriety in the last few years thanks to an incredible development program. Dest is a shining example of what they do in Amsterdam (besides smoke a ton of weed and ride bicycles like they're going out of style): he played in 35 matches with 27 starts for Ajax last season, adding two goals and six assists.

    Barcelona's new manager Ronald Koeman is from Holland as well so that shouldn't hurt Dest's chances of getting on the field soon for Barcelona. Even if it takes some time to be featured frequently by Koeman, he will be getting incredibly valuable experience training every day alongside stars like goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, defenders Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba, midfielders Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong (his old Ajax teammate) and Philippe Coutinho along with forwards like Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele. 

    Despite the last few years being a bit of a mess (by their impossibly high standards), Barcelona's trophy case is still overflowing. This is a team that's won 30 Copa Del Rey trophies, 26 La Liga titles, five Champions League trophies and three FIFA Club World Cup trophies. Dest is obviously not afraid of personal challenges and heading to Spain is a logical next stop for a guy who has tantalizing potential. As if you needed any additional reasons to watch Barcelona matches (other than Messi doing his usual wizardry and Ray Hudson's glorious commentary on beIN Sports), here it is. Let's also hope that the USMNT can get back on the field someday soon because for once, their roster is going to be loaded with legitimate talent not just the usual MLS heroes.

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Weston McKennie Leaves Schalke For Juventus Where Cristiano Ronaldo Will Be A Teammate

 

    If you've been paying attention lately, this end result wasn't a surprise by any means since European soccer rumors are covered almost as extensively as U.S. presidential elections stateside but it is still enormous news for the U.S. men's soccer national team that one of their top talents-midfielder Weston McKennie-has been loaned from FC Schalke (Germany) to Juventus (Italy) until June 30, 2021. If things go well for the 22-year-old Texan at one of the world's top clubs, he could in line for 18.5 million Euros paid over three years. He will be the first American to ever play for Juve. Wow!

    It's been a meteoric rise for McKennie who started with his local MLS club's (FC Dallas) youth program before making the prudent move to head to Schalke and the Bundesliga in 2016. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Germany so there wasn't a huge culture shock for him once he returned. In fact, he made his first team debut the next year. Over the past three seasons, he's become a fixture for Schalke playing in multiple positions and therefore in the same time frame he got his first USMNT call-up under his belt (memorably scoring vs. Portugal in his U.S. debut) and since then he's become enough of a star that he was a captain for them as a 20-year-old.

    Christian Pulisic rightfully gets most of the headlines which makes sense with his insane career trajectory but with McKennie at Juventus now along with Tyler Adams at Red Bull Leipzig and Giovanni Reyna at Borussia Dortmund just to name a few, the US men's national team shouldn't miss any more World Cups in the near future-assuming that those are still a thing despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides their ages and limitless potential, my favorite part about all of these guys is that they are not afraid to go to Europe where they can train and compete against the best players from around the globe. They are not the coddled players from previous USMNT generations that mostly preferred to stick around here where they could dominate without putting in much effort.

    Moreover, they are not scared to make the leap to even bigger (ie. more pressure-packed) clubs. With five goals in 91 career appearances for Schalke (including a Champions League game-winner) and six goals in 19 appearances for the Red, White and Blue, McKennie realized that Schalke will never be more than a mid-tier club in the Bundesliga at best. Their glory days have long passed and they'll never be better than the juggernaut Bayern Munich or Dortmund who is also becoming a budding powerhouse in their own right. Juventus on the other hand is a lock to win Serie-A every year (9 in a row and counting!) not to mention the fact that they are always a contender for the Champions League crown as well. Oh and one of the greatest players in soccer history-Cristiano Ronaldo-plays there along with another absurd attacking talent in Argentine Paulo Dybala. You can't expect McKennie to have an immediate impact with Juve, remember that even Pulisic had some bumpy moments in his first Chelsea campaign, but you can't find a much better environment in every possible way (players, coaching, fans, worldwide attention) to maximize his abilities.

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Samantha Mewis Goes to Man City Which is Great For Her & USWNT but Bad News for the NWSL

 

    Hello friends, I thought that I should check in after over a year since my last post. Haha so what have you been up to lately, are you enjoying the pandemic as much as I am? With no Olympics this summer (maybe next summer?) plus all USMNT and USWNT matches cancelled due to the coronavirus, there has not been a whole lot going on with our best men and women's soccer players. Yes, our top men like Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) and numerous guys in the Bundesliga gave us something to watch this spring/summer when European leagues returned to action. Similarly, many of the top women's players were in the successful NWSL Challenge Cup tournament in Utah which concluded in July. 

    Still, there are so many question marks in all of our lives these days, so imagine if you were a professional athlete in the prime of his or her career. What a nightmare. Whitman-Hanson alum (shoutout to that Massachusetts high school) and UCLA star Samantha Mewis has improved by leaps and bounds the last few seasons to become one of the best midfielders in the world. As such, she wants to challenge herself and the fact that there is no certainty if the NWSL will even have anymore games this year, she made the prudent decision to head to England to play for Manchester City. 

    I have always taken the opposite view to our USWNT players than the USMNT guys (who I always want to go abroad) since they are in the mix every year for the best national team in the world so you would hope that the United States could sustain a top-flight women's professional soccer league. Turns out, no matter how many World Cups (four) or Olympic gold medals (also four) that they win, all that love and positive momentum that they gain in the brightest spotlight, without fail always fades a bit too much when they return home. 

    That's why more and more of the USWNT's top stars head to Europe like Carli Lloyd or Alex Morgan (before she got married and had a baby) to play for powerhouse clubs like Man City or Lyon. Rose Lavelle is also rumored to be going to Man City any day now. There are only eight teams in the NWSL and even though Mewis' club-North Carolina Courage-is one of the best, she needs more certainty in her professional life. Women's soccer is slowly getting more popular overseas and it's no wonder that the juggernaut men's clubs can also field a women's team in its own backyard. 

    I will never lecture anyone on what to do with their time but with that said, this is my personal feeling on the subject of women's soccer in the U.S.: if you enjoy the USWNT, please support them at their club teams as well and make the NWSL or whatever women's league is around in the United States more stable so that our best players don't have to compete elsewhere to stay in top shape for the World Cup, Olympics, She Believes Cup, friendlies, etc. Rant over. 

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