Brenden Aaronson is excited about Cavan Sullivan’s potential with the Union

"I’ve heard about how much of a superstar he’s going to be,” said Aaronson, who helped blaze a trail with the Union that Sullivan is now following.

Cavan Sullivan (right) is the latest young Union phenom whom Jim Curtin (left) has coached, a lineage that includes Brenden and Paxten Aaronson.Read moreJonathan Tannenwald / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published June 5, 2024, 12:18 p.m. ET

MCLEAN, Va. — When Brenden Aaronson said he knew of Cavan Sullivan’s reputation but had never met him, it made sense. But the math still required a little bit of thought.

The 23-year-old Aaronson left for Europe at the end of 2020, at age 19. He was 17 when he debuted for the Union at the start of 2019, and 16 when he debuted for the reserve squad as an amateur on July 15, 2017. So, count backward, carry a 1, subtract this from that, and on the day Aaronson first played for what was then Bethlehem Steel, Sullivan would have been … 7 years old.

Apologies to Jim Curtin if his back just creaked reading that.

“I haven’t seen him play because he’s so much younger than me, but I’ve heard about how much of a superstar he’s going to be,” Aaronson said. “It’s really great for U.S. soccer, and it’s great for the Philadelphia Union.”

Sullivan will join Manchester City when he turns 18 in 2027, with the English Premier League superpower expected to pay the Union up to $5 million. It understandably drew lots of attention here that Sullivan turned pro at age 14, but in Europe that’s nothing new. There are major teenage prospects, even that young, all over the continent.

“To see a 14-year-old signing professionally is definitely something that we don’t see very often in America,” Aaronson said. “I mean, they’re young nowadays, but not that young. So it’s amazing to see.”

In fact, Sullivan is only the fifth-youngest signing to an MLS first team in league history. He made his first start for the Union’s reserve team on Saturday, and there was social media chatter that he was the youngest player to start an American professional game at any level. That was false: At least two players made professional debuts on MLS reserve teams at younger ages.

“I give him full credit because he seems like a confident kid,” Aaronson said. “He seems like he believes in himself, and he’s not afraid to do things. And I respect that because that’s what you need at that age. I can see a lot of things about his game that will help in the future for sure.”

When it comes to MLS first teams, Freddy Adu has held the record for the youngest player at the top level for more than 20 years. If Sullivan makes his Union first-team debut in the Leagues Cup game vs. Charlotte FC on July 27, he will break the record by two days.

Coincidentally, Aaronson’s younger brother, Paxten, could play that same day for the U.S. men’s Olympic team, in its second group game against New Zealand.

Brenden will be somewhere in Europe that day, getting ready for the new season on whatever club he’ll be with by then. So he probably won’t stay up late to watch Sullivan’s debut live — and he won’t be able to travel to France to watch Paxten in person if he makes the U.S. team.

For now, the younger Aaronson (age 20) is at the last training camp for Olympic candidates before the roster is named. The group is in Kansas City and will play Japan in a friendly on June 11 — a day before Brenden and the senior men play Brazil in Orlando in their last Copa América warmup game.

“If Paxten goes, I’m really excited to watch that,” Brenden said. “I’m for sure going to watch them and support them, and I think all the [senior team] guys will, too. We know a bunch of guys on the team, they’ve come up and played with us, so we’ll for sure be rooting for them.”

It’s another coincidence that both Aaronsons face uncertain club situations this summer.

Brenden’s loan from England’s Leeds United to Germany’s Union Berlin is over, and Leeds needs cash to pay off a reported $240 million-plus in debts for players it has previously bought.

Paxten is with Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt, but he spent the second half of this past season on loan at the Netherlands’ Vitesse Arnhem to get more playing time. Eintracht sporting director Markus Krösche said Tuesday that Aaronson is likely to go on loan again this fall.

Brenden said both brothers are “staying patient, and I think that’s the best thing to do at this point.”