Barcelona have reportedly been told to include 21-year-old defender Sergino Dest in the deal to sign Manchester City forward Ferran Torres.
According to a report by Catalan outlet El Nacional, Manchester City are set to demand Sergino Dest in the deal to sell Ferran Torres to Barcelona, either in January or next summer. The Catalan giants had initially offered Philippe Coutinho to the Citizens, who wish to bring in the 21-year-old defender instead.
Sergino Dest joined Barcelona from Ajax in September 2020 and has since made gradual progress in his career. In his maiden campaign at Camp Nou, the USMNT international had to share game time with Sergi Roberto but showed enough quality to justify the money paid to sign him.
Now in his second season with Barcelona, Dest has shown a lot of promise when playing as a right-winger and a left-back. To date, the 21-year-old has made 55 appearances for Barcelona, chipping in with three goals and four assists in the process. However, recent reports have claimed that Dest’s future at the club might not be set in stone.
Dani Alves’s return might hurt the player’s prospects further, and it has recently been claimed that the Catalan giants are open to cashing in on him. Now, Dest has become the subject of interest from Manchester City to be a part of a part-exchange deal involving Ferran Torres, a target for Barcelona.
It has recently been suggested that Barcelona could propose a part-exchange deal to Manchester City to sign Torres, with Dest one of the players likely to be on offer. If that is indeed the case and the Blaugrana are not opposed to including the USMNT international as part of the transfer dealing, the former Ajax defender could be on his way to the Etihad.
The interest from Manchester City might be surprising, considering Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker are already at Pep Guardiola’s disposal. However, one must bear in mind that he could be utilised as a right-winger instead of a full-back, making him a viable candidate to replace Torres.
Guardiola has been a fan of Dest since the youngster’s days at Ajax, and it remains to be seen if Manchester City and Barcelona can engineer a part-exchange deal. As things stand, the 21-year-old faces an uncertain future at Barcelona, with a move to the Premier League possibly being on the horizon.