There is a new Aaronson in Europe, as Paxten joined his older brother Brenden on Thursday by completing a transfer to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Aaronson, 19, joins the German side after spending two seasons with the Philadelphia Union. Just like Brenden, Paxten left the Union for a European team in a multi-million dollar move, with MLSsoccer.com reporting the deal is worth $4 million plus add-ons.
“Paxten has accomplished so much in a short amount of time. He has worked incredibly hard, and he has taken advantage of every opportunity with the first team, Union II and the U-20 National Team,” said Union sporting director Ernst Tanner.
“There has been interest in him for a long time, and we feel this is the right move for the club and the player, putting him in a good situation to continue developing in one the best leagues in the world. It is another great example of our development philosophy, and we are very proud of Paxten and wish him all the best at Frankfurt.”
Medford ➡️ Frankfurt
The newest Eagle! 🦅🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/WRLpKjH2qb
— Eintracht Frankfurt (@eintracht_us) November 17, 2022
Aaronson started only two games for the Union in 2022, as his path to more playing time was blocked by some of the club’s outstanding attackers like Dániel Gazdag, Mikael Uhre and Julián Carranza.
But Aaronson made a big impression over the summer with the U.S. at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship, where he finished as both the tournament’s top scorer and best player.
Aaronson will join Eintracht in January, but it seems as though he is being eyed more for the 2022-23 campaign, with the club currently in fourth place in the Bundesliga and having reached the Champions League last 16.
“He’s a very young player, a highly talented and really gifted player who will give us a huge amount of variety in attack in the future,” said Timmo Hardung, head of first team football at Eintracht.
“We’ve got a very clear plan for how we want to gradually and carefully build him up. And part of that is he’s coming to us in January to start getting used to everything here so that ideally he’s ready to hit the ground running in the new season.”