Colorado Rapids Allow Fans To Exchange Traded-away Star’s Jersey For A New One

The Colorado Rapids are celebrating nan presence of their caller prima subordinate by allowing fans to discard memorabilia of their aged one.

The MLS squad announced connected Thursday that it has acquired Eintracht Frankfurt attacking midfielder Paxten Aaronson successful a club-record woody involving a reported $7m transportation fee. The acquisition fills an evident request for nan Rapids, arsenic nan club’s erstwhile starting No 10, Djordje Mihailović, was traded to Toronto FC for $8m aft expressing to nan nine that he wanted to time off not moreover 2 afloat seasons aft joining.

Mihailović said he requested a transportation for “personal reasons,” a astonishing move of events for a subordinate who quickly became a linchpin of nan team’s attacking portion aft joining from AZ Alkmaar, starring nan Rapids to nan playoffs for nan first clip successful 2 seasons past year. This year, nan Rapids are enjoying their champion play since 2021.

Toronto FC, meanwhile, are successful nan midst of a afloat rebuild, having grounded to make nan MLS playoffs successful each of nan erstwhile 4 seasons and ne'er finishing higher than 11th successful nan Eastern Conference successful that timespan. The nine precocious jettisoned high-priced stars Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi and stay mired adjacent nan bottommost of nan East.

But successful his introductory property convention pinch Toronto FC, Mihailovic indicated that he felt his caller nine had a greater committedness to success, citing “The thought of getting backmost to winning trophies here” among his reasons for nan move.

“Everybody talks astir winning. Everybody talks astir making playoffs,” he said. “I could genuinely consciousness nan truth down them explaining their project.”

Now, nan Rapids are allowing their fans move connected without Mihailović. In announcing nan acquisition of Aaronson, nan nine said it will let fans who bought jerseys pinch Mihailović’s sanction and No 10 connected nan backmost for caller ones, either blank, pinch Aaronson’s sanction and number, aliases that of prime different players.

A Rapids spokesperson told nan Guardian US that nan nine decided to enact nan programme arsenic a measurement of showing their committedness to their community, admitting that Mihailovic’s move “came arsenic a surprise” and that Aaronson’s acquisition marks “a turning constituent and a caller section for nan club, our fans, and our caller rising star.”

A programme of this type is exceedingly uncommon but not unheard of. In 2018, sports retailer Fanatics said it would let NBA fans to speech precocious purchased jerseys of a subordinate who was traded for another. The retailer now runs a akin program crossed each sports for players whose jersey is purchased wrong 90 days of being traded. The NFL put nan brakes connected a similar programme tally by a Detroit realtor for Matthew Stafford Lions past year. In a overmuch much superior scenario, nan New England Patriots ran a programme to let fans to trade successful their Aaron Hernandez jerseys aft he was charged pinch nan execution of Odin Lloyd.

Paxten Aaronson, nan relative of Leeds United’s Brenden Aaronson, is leaving down nan chance to play successful nan German Bundesliga but will measurement into a business wherever he’ll beryllium relied upon to return a starring domiciled for nan Rapids. The younger Aaronson spent past play connected indebtedness to Utrecht successful nan Dutch Eredivisie, wherever he scored a team-high 8 goals and added 4 assists while starting consistently arsenic Utrecht vanished 4th successful nan league.

Aaronson moved to Eintracht Frankfurt successful 2022 aft breaking done pinch nan Philadelphia Union, his location municipality club. He made his debut for nan US men’s nationalist squad successful 2023 and was connected nan roster for nan 2025 Gold Cup on pinch his brother.