Contract is ‘dream come true’ for latest Homegrown Aaronson
CHESTER » Fourteen months ago, the Philadelphia Union made a splash by signing an attacking midfielder who had yet to graduate high school, an oddity on both fronts for an MLS club.
It’s a testament to how much the Union has grown that the signing of Brenden Aaronson Monday is less an outlier than a natural extension of its business model.
Like Anthony Fontana last summer, Aaronson signed a Homegrown deal that will take effect at the start of next season, by which point he’ll be in his final semester at YSC Academy. Aaronson is the Union’s ninth Homegrown, six of whom are on the current roster, and the Medford native is the first representative of the South Jersey sector of the club’s catchment area.
“It’s been a dream come true because now it’s all come to this,” Aaronson said Monday at the Power Training Complex. “It’s really amazing, and I’m just happy to be here.”
Aaronson has been in the Union’s program since he was 10, a Union Junior coached by Jim Curtin. An Indiana University commit, Aaronson has played 12 games with affiliate club Bethlehem Steel this season. He scored six goals in 14 appearances with the Union Under-19 squad last season.
Though he’s trained regularly with Steel, Monday was his first full session with the first team, another important milestone for the 5-10 midfielder.
“You’ve got to step up your level every single time you come here,” Aaronson said. “You’ve got to have that focus on giving 100 percent every single time.”
Aaronson is the second promising young player inked by the Union in the last week, joining 15-yearold forward and Steel signee Selmir Miscic. In both cases, the move was precipitated in part by interest from European clubs, as MLS clubs don’t receive compensation for academy products unless they’ve signed a pro contract.
The interest accelerated a process earned by Aaronson’s ability. Like Miscic, he and his family determined that the best place for his development would be close to home, for the time being.
“It was just a decision that came from my family,” Aaronson said. “I wanted to stay home, kind of get a few years under my belt, see what I can do here and we’ll see where the future goes.”
“Brenden is a young kid that’s been in our academy for quite some time, has been around the Philadelphia Union for quite some time, so to lock up our top talents is key,” Curtin said. “There’s always a possibility of him going to Europe. There’s a lot of teams that were sniffing around for him at big clubs in Europe; same with Selmir. I think it’s important when as a club we invest so much in these young players – time, money – that we lock them down here. I think it was the right move for the club.”
Aaronson is familiar with the standard set by Fontana last year, as well as the success of Auston Trusty and Mark McKenzie.
“You just want to be where they are,” Aaronson said. “Seeing them every single day and seeing them train here because you’re with Steel, you want to be in their position, so it just pushes you and pushes you. They’ll help me get into the group and know everyone, so it’ll be good.”
Many recent products of top academies have possessed greater physical stature than the slight Aaronson, and generating successful attacking midfielders hasn’t been the forte of American soccer at large. But Curtin believes Aaronson can excel at the intersection of those peculiarities.
“The mind, how quickly you can see things, how technical you are with the ball, your decisionmaking, your soccer IQ for lack of a better way to put it, he has that,” Curtin said. “He sees things early. He did at a young age have to find solutions when he would play up against bigger, stronger kids.”