Morgan Whittaker Joins Colorado Rapids in Designated Player Move
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, with the American club holding an option for a further year.
The 25-year-old forward, signed by Boro for £5m from Plymouth Argyle in January 2025, departs for an undisclosed fee and will occupy one of the Rapids’ prized Designated Player slots. Colorado, managed by English coach Matt Wells, sit seventh in the Western Conference as they push for play-off security.
From goal drought to talisman
Whittaker’s time on Teesside never ran in a straight line. He arrived midway through the 2024-25 season after Middlesbrough beat off competition to land him, billed as a key piece in Michael Carrick’s promotion puzzle.
What followed was brutal. Sixteen games, no goals, and a side that slipped out of play-off contention on the final day. The drought stretched to 25 matches in total, a barren run that turned painful when he was ironically cheered off the pitch by some travelling supporters at Preston North End.
Then everything changed.
He finally broke his duck in a win over Ipswich Town and suddenly looked like the player Boro thought they had signed. Eight goals in 12 games. A streak of scoring in six consecutive matches. By the end of the campaign, as Middlesbrough’s push for Premier League football ended in play-off disappointment, Whittaker stood as the club’s top scorer.
Fourteen goals in 66 games overall does not tell the full story, but it underlines his importance once he caught fire.
Carrick’s reshaped attack moves on
This season, Whittaker had started all three Championship fixtures up to the win over West Bromwich Albion on 29 August and made five appearances in all competitions. Yet the direction of travel at the club was clear.
Middlesbrough have overhauled their squad, bringing in 12 new players in the summer window. The late arrival of on-loan Brighton winger Amario Cozier-Duberry on deadline day added another attacking option and increased competition in the forward line.
In that context, the offer from Colorado presented both an opportunity for Whittaker to reset his career and for Boro to lean fully into their rebuild.
A new stage in the Rockies
For Whittaker, the move to MLS is a significant statement. Designated Player status at Colorado Rapids brings responsibility as well as profile. He joins a club in the thick of the Western Conference battle, under a compatriot in Wells who will know exactly what kind of player he is getting: a wide forward capable of streaky, season-shaping form.
From being cheered off at Preston to carrying Boro’s goal threat down the stretch, Whittaker has already shown how quickly his narrative can flip. Now he has another chance to rewrite it again, this time at altitude in the Rocky Mountains.
