Whittaker Joins Colorado Rapids After Middlesbrough Exit

Morgan Whittaker’s turbulent Middlesbrough chapter 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 moves to the United States for an undisclosed fee and will occupy a Designated Player slot in Denver. The Rapids, managed by English coach Matt Wells and currently seventh in the Western Conference, also hold an option to extend his stay by a further year.

It is a striking move for a player who, not long ago, looked to be drifting.

Whittaker arrived at Boro from Plymouth Argyle in January 2025 for £5m, a signing that felt like a statement at the time. Middlesbrough had beaten off competition to land him midway through the 2024-25 campaign, banking on his eye for goal and sharp movement across the front line.

The early months were brutal.

Thrown into a side chasing the play-offs under Michael Carrick, Whittaker failed to score in any of his first 16 appearances. As Boro’s promotion push faltered and finally collapsed on the last day of the season, his drought became a symbol of the team’s stutter. At Preston North End, the frustration boiled over so starkly that he was ironically cheered off when substituted, a moment that cut through the usual noise of a long Championship season.

Then the mood changed.

He finally broke his duck in a win over Ipswich Town and, once the first goal arrived, the floodgates opened. Whittaker hit eight goals in 12 games, including a run of six consecutive scoring appearances, to finish the campaign as Middlesbrough’s leading marksman. By the end of the season, the narrative had flipped: from misfit to key man, even as Boro’s hopes of Premier League football were ultimately crushed in the play-offs.

Across his time on Teesside, Whittaker scored 14 goals in 66 games. This season he had already featured five times, starting all three Championship fixtures up to the win against West Bromwich Albion on 29 August.

Yet while he was fighting to regain rhythm, the club was reshaping around him.

Boro have brought in 12 new players over the summer, including Brighton winger Amario Cozier-Duberry on loan, signed on deadline day. The influx has sharpened competition across the forward line and made Whittaker’s sale both a sporting and financial pivot as Carrick continues to remodel his squad.

For Colorado, it is a calculated play on a forward whose confidence, once lit, can burn brightly. For Whittaker, it is a fresh start in a new league, with Designated Player status underlining the Rapids’ expectation that he will be central to their attack.

From being jeered off at Preston to carrying a DP tag in MLS, his next act unfolds a long way from the Riverside — but with the same question hanging over it: can he turn a hot streak into a complete season?