The Philadelphia Union product has added end product to his trademark hustle – can he keep the good form going?
Timing is everything in a World Cup year, and Brenden Aaronson’s has been pretty much perfect.
Scoring a goal and putting in a top performance against your team’s biggest rival is something all players dream of. To do so when your family is watching in the stands and a reporter from your home town newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, is in the press box makes it all the better. Aaronson did all of the above at Elland Road for Leeds United against Manchester United earlier this month.
Related: The 2026 World Cup may transform US soccer. The 2030 World Cup could be even better
Beyond this isolated, personal moment, there is the bigger picture of a player hopinh to catch the eye of the USMNT head coach, Mauricio Pochettino. Such a high-profile goal is certainly one way to do it, as is continuing that good form into subsequent weeks. Once again, Aaronson has done it all.
Aaronson scored twice in a subsequent 4-3 defeat at Newcastle United, emerging as one of the best and most prominent players in one of the most dramatic games in the English league so far this season. (Though it should be noted he also conceded a penalty late on from a handball).
“I turned off for a minute and I know I can’t lift my hand like this around the box,” he said. “It’s football at the end of the day.”
The scoring run took the former Philadelphia Union player to four league goals for the season, level with such Premier League luminaries as Mohamed Salah and Bukayo Saka. Regardless of performance levels, achieving any kind of regular attacking output in the goals and assists columns in the Premier League isn’t easy. Just ask some of the league’s biggest summer signings Benjamin Šeško, Florian Wirtz, Viktor Gyökeres and Xavi Simons, none of whom have more goal contributions than Aaronson, who has three assists to go with his four goals.
Being left out of the lineup for Leeds’ subsequent visit to Championship side Derby County in what was a historic weekend in the English FA Cup was less a case of being dropped, more an indication of the American’s importance to his club. Premier League teams will often use the early rounds of cup competitions to rest players considered key to their league campaign. Leeds’ primary aim this year is to avoid relegation, so manager Daniel Farke clearly sees Aaronson’s availability in the league as crucial to achieving that aim. He returned for the club’s next Premier League match, earning a standing ovation at home for his performance against Fulham before being subbed off.
Things have not always been this rosy for Aaronson at Leeds. His relationship with the club and its supporters has had its ups and downs, especially when, after Leeds was relegated in 2023, he left on loan for Bundesliga side Union Berlin. It’s the kind of move that can be seen as showing a lack of loyalty, abandoning a team when it needs you the most, but it’s also a fairly common occurrence and can be as much about a club balancing its wage bill as it is a player’s decision.
Aaronson returned for the 2024-25 Championship season after an unspectacular spell in Berlin, and went on to be part of the Leeds team that topped the second tier with 100 points to secure a return to the Premier League. Plenty of minutes were logged in that Championship-winning campaign, and plenty of yards covered. It’s a built-in work rate that you get with Aaronson that can soon start to win fans over again, but the addition of goals, assists, and quality in key moments to complement the toil completes the job.
Related: Then and now: what has changed since the opening Premier League games?
His nine goals in the 2024-25 campaign were a career best, and the flurry of goals to begin 2026 has put him on track to better that number in 2025-26 and reach double figures. Christian Pulisic never reached double figures for goals in the Premier League, despite doing so in each of his seasons in Serie A for Milan.
In some ways, it has been an unusual Premier League season so far, with the champions Liverpool dropping off despite a record summer transfer spend, Chelsea sacking their Club World Cup-winning manager Enzo Maresca, and Aston Villa and Sunderland making impressive starts.
Leeds are in the bottom half of the table, but still eight points above the relegation places. Falling off rather than moving further up will always be the prediction for a newly promoted team, but in a strong and competitive Premier League, Leeds are holding their own, just four points off a congested mid-table gathering and 10 points from a European spot.
Aaronson will be key to any further progress. His finishing and decision-making in the final third will need to remain at the new and improved 2026 level, especially since Facundo Buonanotte has just arrived on loan from Brighton as potential competition for his place in the lineup. It will also need to remain at this level to ensure he returns home for the World Cup this summer as a participant rather than an onlooker.
“That one felt really good, to be honest with you,” Aaronson told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald of his goal against Manchester United. “To score against your rival is huge, and I’m really proud of it. And keep going from here.”
Keeping going is something Aaronson does better than most. The combination of work rate and quality he possesses can be an asset to any team, and is something Pochettino values. The quality aspect of this dynamic can be fleeting, but the 25-year-old has entered a good run of form at exactly the right time, both for his club’s hopes of remaining in the Premier League and for his USMNT chances in a World Cup year.
Category: General Sports
