The Philadelphia Union have agreed to sell Homegrown midfielder Brenden Aaronson to RB Salzburg for a multi-million dollar transfer fee that is the highest-ever for a U.S.-based Homegrown player.
The 19-year-old New Jersey native will be eligible to play for the Austrian side January 1, 2021. He will complete the 2020 Major League Soccer regular season with the Union.
“We are very proud of Brenden and what he has accomplished in such a short amount of time,” Union principal owner Jay Sugarman said. “Player development is one of the three core areas we want to excel at to build our club into a consistent winner and giving players a chance to continually challenge themselves is part of that ideology. Brenden’s success will inspire everyone involved in developing our young talent and will be just one of many success stories we expect to see out of our academy in the coming years. I wish Brenden the best at Red Bull Salzburg. I know he’ll always have Philadelphia and the Union in his heart and I look forward to seeing what his future holds.”
“This is an important next step for both Brenden, the organization, and United States soccer,” Union sporting director Ernst Tanner said. “This has always been the goal of the club. We want to establish a unique identity of developing young players through our academy with an end goal of cultivating and developing their talent to the level that allows them to compete against the very best in the world. We are incredibly proud that Brenden is leading the way as the first Philadelphia Union homegrown player to test himself against top European competition.”
Aaronson has seven goals and seven assists in his two seasons with the Union. He has four goals and five assists in 2020.
This is a developing story. More information and quotes will be added later.