The Colorado Rapids are celebrating the arrival of their new star player by allowing fans to discard memorabilia of their old one.
The MLS team announced on Thursday that it has acquired Eintracht Frankfurt attacking midfielder Paxten Aaronson in a club-record deal involving a reported $7m transfer fee. The purchase fills an obvious need for the Rapids, as the club’s previous starting No 10, Djordje Mihailović, was traded to Toronto FC for $8m after expressing to the club that he wanted to leave not even two full seasons after joining.
Mihailović said he requested a transfer for “personal reasons”, a surprising turn of events for a player who quickly became a linchpin of the team’s attacking unit after joining from AZ Alkmaar, leading Colorado to the playoffs for the first time in two seasons last year. This year, the Rapids are enjoying their best season since 2021.
Toronto FC, meanwhile, are in the midst of a full rebuild, having failed to make the MLS playoffs in each of the previous four seasons and never finishing higher than 11th in the Eastern Conference in that timespan. The club recently jettisoned high-priced stars Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi and remain mired near the bottom of the East.
But in his introductory press conference with Toronto FC, Mihailovic indicated that he felt his new club had a greater commitment to success, citing “The idea of getting back to winning trophies here” among his reasons for the move.
“Everybody talks about winning. Everybody talks about making playoffs,” he said. “I could truly sense the truth behind them explaining their project.”
Now, the Rapids are allowing their fans move on without Mihailović. In announcing the acquisition of Aaronson, the club said it will allow fans who bought jerseys with Mihailović’s name and No 10 on the back for new ones, either blank, with Aaronson’s name and number, or that of select other players.
A Rapids spokesperson told the Guardian US that the club decided to enact the program as a way of showing their commitment to their community, admitting that Mihailovic’s move “came as a surprise” and that Aaronson’s acquisition marks “a turning point and a fresh chapter for the club, our fans, and our new rising star”.
A program of this type is exceedingly rare but not unheard of. In 2018, sports retailer Fanatics said it would allow NBA fans to exchange recently purchased jerseys of a player who was traded for another. The retailer now runs a similar program across all sports for players whose jersey is purchased within 90 days of being traded. The NFL put the brakes on a similar program run by a Detroit realtor for Matthew Stafford Lions last year. In a much more serious scenario, the New England Patriots ran a program to allow fans to trade in their Aaron Hernandez jerseys after he was charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd.
Paxten Aaronson, the brother of Leeds United’s Brenden Aaronson, is leaving behind the chance to play in the German Bundesliga but will step into a situation where he’ll be relied upon to take a leading role for the Rapids. The younger Aaronson spent last season on loan to Utrecht in the Dutch Eredivisie, where he scored a team-high eight goals and added four assists while starting consistently as Utrecht finished fourth in the league.
Aaronson moved to Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022 after breaking through with the Philadelphia Union, his home town club. He made his debut for the US men’s national team in 2023 and was on the roster for the 2025 Gold Cup along with his brother.
