United States defender Sergiño Dest said he is excited about the potential arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as men’s national team coach.
Dest, who suffered a torn ACL this past May and will likely be ruled out until 2025, said he thinks the arrival of the Argentine coach could be a big boost for the team.
“Yeah, it is [exciting],” he told ESPN while attending this weekend’s Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix. “Obviously, he’s been a coach for big cubs and he’s a well-known coach. That will be a nice experience to train under him.
Pochettino has built a reputation for developing players, particularly during his time at Tottenham from 2014-2019
“That’s exciting. We’ll see and hopefully it can help all of us … to have a really great result at the 2026 World Cup, you know? Because we are the home country,” Dest added.
“We need to take it step by step because he is not there yet.”
Dest said he hopes the news is official soon. The U.S. has two friendlies during the September international window against Canada and Panama on Sept. 7 and Sept. 10, respectively. A source told ESPN that former USMNT assistant Mikey Varas will take charge of the U.S. for those two matches.
ESPN reported last week that Pochettino has agreed to succeed Gregg Berhalter as USMNT coach, with just final details to be finalized. He is expected to take charge of the team for the first time versus Mexico in a friendly to be held at Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron on Oct. 15.
“Yeah, everybody’s waiting [to hear whether Pochettino is official],” Dest said.
“I haven’t been with the team in the last camp because obviously I’m injured so I have nothing to do there, but I will go probably in the near future, in October camp or November. I try to to be with the team and will ask them to stay there with the chemistry and everything, to support them.”
Dest said the torn ACL is “100 percent” the biggest injury he has ever had to come back from in his career. Dest picked up the injury in training with PSV Eindhoven on April 20.
The club originally described it as a serious knee injury but the 23-year-old later confirmed that he would be out for at least nine months. He told ESPN he hopes to be back with the club in January 2025.
“I set in my mind end of January, but I have to see how it goes, step by step,” he said. “So if it goes worse or whatever, for any reason, I have to wait. The thing that I have to make sure is that my knee is perfect and then I can play. So if I need a little bit longer, I will take it because this is a really big injury.”
Dest underwent surgery in May.
“The rehab is going really well. I’m on schedule, I’m in time, so that’s OK,” he said. “Obviously it’s mentally a tough moment, but I accepted it.
“I don’t think too much about football at the moment because then sometimes you get emotional — you wanna play, you want to go faster, but you can’t. So I kind of keep myself calm and make sure that I do everything step by step, on the right time in the right direction.
Dest, though, said the whole experience can make him stronger.
“I didn’t expect it, you know, even in the moment that it happened,” he said. “For me it felt like pain, but I was like, oh OK, couple days and then it’s over. Then we did the MRI, we did the scan and then they said nine months. So it was difficult to hear that. At first I couldn’t even believe it.
“It makes me a more experienced man and more an adult.”
ESPN’s Nate Saunders contributed to this report.
