Sergiño Dest on Xavi and Frenkie de Jong's Role

Sergiño Dest swerves Xavi questions – and points straight to Frenkie de Jong

Xavi Hernandez taking over as Netherlands head coach has dominated the week’s headlines, dragging Barcelona, the KNVB and half of Europe into the conversation. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what the former Barça boss will bring to Oranje.

Sergiño Dest isn’t rushing to add his.

The PSV full-back, who shared a dressing room with Xavi at Camp Nou, was asked by ESPN to lift the lid on his old coach and what the Dutch national team can expect. Instead of a long reflection, Dest offered a short answer and a clear direction.

“I think you should ask Frenkie de Jong,” he said, smiling. “Ask Frenkie, he knows more.”

One line, and the ball was firmly played elsewhere.

The interviewer tried again, this time going back to Dest’s own spell at Barcelona and his time around Xavi in Catalonia. The response stayed cool.

“It’s been quite a while since then. To be honest, I don’t have many memories of that time.”

For a player who arrived at Barça as one of Europe’s most exciting young full-backs and worked under Xavi during a key phase of the club’s rebuild, the comments were strikingly restrained. No glowing tribute. No criticism either. Just a polite sidestep and a nod towards a teammate who lived Xavi’s Barça far more intensely.

That part makes sense. Frenkie de Jong became one of Xavi’s central pieces in midfield, a player the coach publicly backed and repeatedly relied on. Dest, by contrast, never fully nailed down a place. His Barcelona adventure stalled, then drifted.

After his move from Ajax, Dest struggled to cement a starting role in the Blaugrana back line. A loan to AC Milan was supposed to relaunch him, but that chapter never truly caught fire. The real reset came in Eindhoven.

At PSV, Dest found rhythm and responsibility. He rediscovered the aggressive, adventurous full-back that had once put him on every scout’s radar, quickly growing into a key figure for the Dutch giants. A serious injury then cut across that momentum and threatened to derail the revival just as it was gathering pace.

He has since fought his way back, re-establishing himself as an important part of PSV’s setup and drawing fresh interest in the transfer market with his performances.

So when the conversation turns to Xavi and the future of the Netherlands, Dest chooses not to look back at a mixed Barcelona spell. He points to Frenkie de Jong instead – the midfielder who lived Xavi’s vision from the inside and now stands as the clearest link between Barcelona’s ideas and Oranje’s next chapter.