Morgan Whittaker Joins Colorado Rapids from Middlesbrough
Morgan Whittaker has swapped Teesside for the Rocky Mountains, leaving Middlesbrough to join MLS side Colorado Rapids on a three-year deal.
The 25-year-old forward, who became Boro’s top scorer last season, moves for an undisclosed fee and will occupy a Designated Player slot in Denver. The Rapids, managed by English coach Matt Wells and sitting seventh in the Western Conference, also hold an option to extend his contract by a further year.
From goal drought to talisman
Whittaker’s Middlesbrough story never ran in a straight line.
Signed from Plymouth Argyle for £5m in January 2025 after Boro beat off strong competition, he arrived at the Riverside as a statement attacking addition. The early months, though, were brutal. He failed to score in any of his first 16 appearances as Michael Carrick’s side slid out of play-off contention on the final day of the season.
The barren run stretched to 25 games. At Preston North End, the frustration boiled over in a different way as he was actually cheered off when substituted, a moment that underlined how far confidence had fallen.
Then it turned.
Whittaker finally broke his duck in a win over Ipswich Town and caught fire. He hit eight goals in 12 matches, including a streak of scoring in six consecutive games, and finished the campaign as Boro’s leading marksman as their push for Premier League football ended in the play-offs.
By the time he left, he had 14 goals in 66 appearances for the club.
A new chapter in Colorado
This season, Whittaker had started all three Championship fixtures up to the win over West Bromwich Albion on 29 August and featured five times in total, but his departure comes amid major change at the Riverside.
Middlesbrough have brought in 12 new players over the summer, including Brighton winger Amario Cozier-Duberry on loan in a deadline-day move, reshaping Carrick’s attacking options and clearing the path for Whittaker’s exit.
Colorado now inherit a forward who has lived both sides of the English game’s emotional spectrum: the long, public drought and the red-hot scoring streak that followed. The Rapids are gambling a Designated Player slot on the version that finished last season, not the one who first arrived in the Championship.
If they get that player, the one who rattled in six games on the spin, the cheers that once greeted his substitution at Preston may soon be replaced by something very different in the thin air of Denver.
