Morgan Whittaker Joins Colorado Rapids from Middlesbrough
Morgan Whittaker’s turbulent Middlesbrough spell is over. The club’s top scorer from last season has left the Riverside to join MLS side Colorado Rapids on a three-year deal.
The 25-year-old forward heads to the United States for an undisclosed fee, with the Rapids holding an option for a further year. He will occupy one of their valuable Designated Player slots, a clear sign of how highly the Western Conference side rate him. Colorado currently sit seventh in the West under English head coach Matt Wells, and have now moved decisively to add a proven Championship finisher.
For Middlesbrough, it draws a line under a short but eventful chapter. Signed from Plymouth Argyle for £5m in January 2025, Whittaker arrived with a reputation as a ruthless wide forward and a queue of admirers. Boro won that race, convinced he could be the man to push them over the line in the promotion battle.
It did not start that way.
Whittaker went 16 games without a goal to close out the 2024-25 campaign, as Michael Carrick’s side slipped out of play-off contention on the final day. The drought stretched to 25 matches in all, a brutal run that tested both player and crowd. At Preston North End, he was even cheered off when substituted, a stark snapshot of how strained the relationship had become.
Then the goals came.
He finally broke his duck in a win over Ipswich Town and, once the first one went in, the floodgates opened. Whittaker hit eight goals in 12 games, including scoring in six consecutive matches. From target of frustration to leading marksman, he finished the season as Boro’s top scorer and a central figure in their late push, which ultimately ended in play-off disappointment and another year outside the Premier League.
This season, Carrick trusted him again. Whittaker featured in five games in all competitions and started all three Championship fixtures up to the victory over West Bromwich Albion on 29 August. Yet while he remained part of the core group, Boro’s summer business told its own story.
Twelve new players arrived, among them Brighton loanee Amario Cozier-Duberry, snapped up on deadline day to add fresh attacking spark. With the squad reshaped and the wage bill recalibrated, an offer from MLS for a Designated Player move suddenly looked like a clean break for everyone.
Whittaker leaves Teesside with 14 goals in 66 appearances, a record that only hints at the extremes of his Middlesbrough journey: long, confidence-sapping barren spells followed by a blistering scoring streak that briefly made him indispensable.
Colorado now inherit that contradiction – a forward who has shown both the weight of expectation and the thrill of catching fire at the right time. For Boro, the question is simple: have they already replaced those goals, or will his departure echo later in a long Championship season?
