Forget It Jake, It's USMNT Town
Paxten Aaronson, a 21-year-old Philadelphia Union academy product who left the Union to join Eintracht Frankfurt after making just over 40 total appearances for the club, is coming back to MLS.
Aaronson is joining the Colorado Rapids as a DP, leaving behind (for the moment) the dream of making it in Europe. People are freaking out.
You already knew all this because you follow Tom Bogert, but to say that this move landed like a bombshell in several different American soccer circles is a massive understatement. For the MLS set, watching the Rapids sell Djordje Mihailovic to Toronto only to turn around and entice another young American number 10 back from the Continent (while breaking their transfer record to boot) is wild. Because it's Colorado and their track record isn't great, no one quite knows how to feel about it.
I think it's fair to say that taking out the club involved, the phenomenon of an MLS club bringing back an up-and-coming American that plenty of people see as a possible USMNT player is fascinating. Unlike Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, and Clint Dempsey a generation ago—or even Mihailovic himself—Aaronson isn't an established US international or made much of an impact in Europe. That he's 21 (he'll turn 22 next week) is undoubtedly part of the Rapids' calculation, but there aren't easy analogs in league history for this move.
$7 million plus adds-ons is a lot of money for a player for whom Colorado has limited data. I'm sure they're looking beyond the simple counting stats, but does eight goals and six assists across the league and cup in the Netherlands say all that much about Aaronson's future?
It's a risk for the Rapids, it's a risk for Aaronson, and it is 100-percent the kind of signing that could never just be about the player or the club involved.
That's because American soccer fans are not normal. I mean me, but I also mean...
I can't get over the phrase "hostile act".
The rant is unhinged and the logic is cooked soccer brain stuff. I know we live in an era where everyone twists reality to fit their innate biases, but damn son. This is beyond next level.
American soccer is exactly this, though. This is of a kind with my item on the response to Vermont Green's USL-2 title run; we are (in the general sense) incapable of seeing anything that happens in American soccer as independent of the bigger American soccer project. If a small town team draws big crowds and captures the hearts of locals, we have to make it about promotion and relegation, the future of soccer in America, and our ability as a country to ascend to the heights of the game worldwide.
If an MLS team (and I know single-entity muddies the waters here, but there's no reason to believe that MLS franchises aren't independent actors in 2025) signs a talented young American who might have options in Europe, it can't just be a move both the club and the player think works for both parties, or one for which there is no "remedy" because, you know, players and clubs have agency and it's actually insane to suggest punishing them for exercising it, it has to be a "hostile act" on the part of MLS.
Sure, I know I'm highlighting the most extreme of the USMNT-focused fan subset. Not all USMNT fans think like that. Some might even be able to allow for the possibility that Aaronson will end up a better player with the playing time and responsibility he'll get in Colorado. He's barely a fringe national teamer now, so what's the harm in him getting a chance to be the man in MLS and grow into his talent?
You barely need any perspective at all to see that the market for MLS players is growing and that Aarsonson could easily be back in Europe—perhaps ready to play meaningful minutes for a club in a top five league—if he tears it up in Colorado.
Keeping some perspective isn't easy when the thing you want most in this life is to see the USMNT win the World Cup, but it's a good idea to at least make the effort.
It's hard for me not to see the "all roads lead to the USMNT" attitude as a significant part of the negativity around the team. As long as we're holding the entire system responsible for not delivering what we see as our only worthwhile achievement, there's little room for positivity. Vermont Green's success is an indictment of our club system and our club system being the way it is is why we aren't as good as we should be. Paxten Aaronson signing with Colorado is an indictment of Major League Soccer and Major League Soccer is why we aren't as good as we should. A scan of YouTube, or the most popular USMNT-focused content creators shows just how intoxicating pointing the finger and ranting is for a lot of fans.
Here's what I said on Bluesky.
I'm a massive USMNT fan and think viewing every American soccer happening through the prism of how it affects the USMNT is the worst way to be an American soccer fan.
— Jason Davis (@davisjason.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 10:50 AM
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That way lies misery. Everyone unclench.
The Best Soccer Show is tonight! More on this topic, plus other fun American soccer things. Because soccer should be fun.