Brenden Aaronson Marries Milana D’Ambra Amid World Cup Preparations

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — On Friday, while his U.S. teammates went through another World Cup training session, Brenden Aaronson had a different set of vows to keep.

The Leeds United midfielder was excused from camp to marry longtime girlfriend Milana D’Ambra, the daughter of Saint Joseph’s men’s soccer coach Don D’Ambra, trading rondos and pressing drills for rings and photographs. He left the national team setup after Thursday’s session and is scheduled to be back in time for training on Saturday, a brief detour from World Cup preparation for one of life’s biggest moments.

At 25, Aaronson already carries the weight of two World Cup cycles on his shoulders. A member of the 2022 U.S. World Cup squad and now part of the group building toward the next tournament, he has grown up in a household where the game is never far from the conversation. The Aaronsons are a fully fledged American soccer clan from Medford, New Jersey.

His brother Paxten is forging his own path with the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer. Sister Jaden took her first steps in the college game last fall as a freshman at Villanova. Their father, Rusty, oversees development at Real Futbol Academy in Medford as sporting director, shaping the next wave of prospects while his own children live out the journey he helps others start.

So a wedding that connects one soccer family to another feels almost inevitable. Milana’s father, Don D’Ambra, has long been a fixture at Saint Joseph’s, and now two coaching and playing lineages intersect in a ceremony that briefly pulls Aaronson away from the U.S. camp.

The national team has been here before with its stars and their milestones. Back in 2016, the program made room for a different rite of passage when a teenage Christian Pulisic skipped training to attend his Hershey High School prom at the Hershey Hotel in Pennsylvania. He rejoined the squad the next day and played in the Copa America match against Bolivia in Kansas City, Kansas.

This time, it is Aaronson stepping away, not for a dance floor but for a wedding aisle, before diving straight back into a World Cup push that will demand everything from him once the celebrations are over.