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There have been few soccer partnerships like Dani Alves and Lionel Messi. The free-flowing Brazilian fullback built an intuitive relationship with the Argentine maestro; Alves set up more goals for Messi than anyone else during his time at Barcelona. So when Dani Alves speaks about Sergiño Dest’s role as fullback at Barcelona, he knows what he’s talking about.
Alves left Barcelona in 2016 and spent a few years at Juventus and PSG before returning to Brazil, where he now plays for São Paulo. The man who is third all time in caps for Brazil spoke about his former club on Friday, and after talking about Messi’s recent contract situation he spoke of Dest, the young American fullback who joined Barcelona this season.
“Dest has a lot of quality and could be a great player for Barcelona but I don't like to make comparisons,” Alves said, translation via ESPN. “The same happened to me with Cafu. It doesn’t make sense.”
Alves then gave Dest a bit of advice:
“If I had to give Dest some advice, it would be very simple: Pass the ball to Messi!”
Simple, but we can’t think of better advice.
Dest turned 20 on Tuesday and recently became the first American to appear in El Clásico. He will be a part of the USMNT roster for friendlies against Wales and Panama next week.
First, he’ll hope to help Barcelona beat Real Betis on Saturday. We suggest he passes to Messi.
As for Alves’ comments on Messi’s contract, which expires at the end of this season, here’s what he said.
“Messi is as great as the badge of Barcelona,” Alves said. “But as he could see that everything around him was a disaster, it’s understandable that he wanted to leave. He has done so much that he deserves to have the stadium named after him.
“I told him not to leave Barca. When the club was trying to get rid of me, I told him so and he said to me ‘Don’t go, where could you go that is better than here?’ I told him the same thing (this summer). He didn’t reply but I know that he got the message.
“Barcelona has changed its philosophy so it’s normal that it’s having problems right now. It has lost its identity and now it has to go through a tough process to get it back.”
(Information from Reuters used in this report.)
