Paxten Aaronson hopes to join brother Brenden on US team
CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Paxten Aaronson has yet to move into an apartment in Germany.
“I actually have only been there for like four days,” he said. “I was staying in the hotel, but I walked all around the city. It’s a beautiful city, but I’m looking forward to going back and kind of making it my home with my apartment and everything.”
The 19-year-old midfielder transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt from Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union at the start of the year, then went to Dubai with his new club for 10 days of training. The younger brother of Leeds midfielder Brenden Aaronson, Paxten Aaronson then headed to the U.S. to join the American national team for a possible debut in an exhibition against Serbia on Wednesday night under interim coach Anthony Hudson.
“I’m really hungry to get after it and make a really good first impression,” Aaronson said Monday. “It’s a dream of mine to make my senior debut.”
A native of Medford, New Jersey, Aaronson started with the Union academy at the under-13/14 level, debuted for Philadelphia Union II in the second tier United Soccer League on July 23, 2020, and made his MLS debut May 30, 2021. He played in 23 games last season, though just two of them starts.
Aaronson scored seven goals in five matches at the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, earning top player and goal-scoring leader awards as the Americans qualified for this year’s Under-20 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics.
Aaronson is following the path of 22-year-old brother Brenden, who moved from the Union to RB Salzburg in January 2021 and to Leeds last summer.
“I talk to him on a regular basis,” Aaronson said. “I think I was going to FaceTime him later today.”
Brenden Aaronson made his U.S. debut in January 2020 and has 28 international appearances, including all four U.S. matches at last year’s World Cup. He is not with the team for this week’s games, which are outside FIFA’s international release windows.
The Aaronsons could become the eighth set of brothers to play for the national team following John and Pedro DeBrito, Otto and Rolf Decker, Angelo and Paul DiBernardo, Charlie and Henry McCully, George and Louie Nanchoff, Steve and Ken Snow, Archie and Tom Stark.
After the U.S. plays Colombia in another friendly this weekend, Paxten Aaronson will head back to Germany. His decision to leave home for Europe was an easy one.
“They weren’t just buying me to buy me. They really do have a true plan, and I fit into their system, the style they want to play,” he said. “It was a no-brainer for me.”
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports