Morgan Whittaker Joins Colorado Rapids After Middlesbrough Spell

Morgan Whittaker’s Middlesbrough chapter is over. The forward has swapped Teesside for the Rocky Mountains, signing for MLS side Colorado Rapids on a three-year deal.

The 25-year-old moves for an undisclosed fee and will occupy a Designated Player slot in Denver, a clear statement of intent from a Rapids team sitting seventh in the Western Conference under English head coach Matt Wells.

From goal drought to talisman

Whittaker arrived at the Riverside in January 2025 for £5m from Plymouth Argyle, a signing Middlesbrough had to fight hard to secure midway through the 2024-25 campaign. The early returns 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.

The barren run stretched to 25 games in total. At Preston North End, the frustration boiled over in a different way: he was actually cheered off when substituted, a raw snapshot of a striker’s confidence and a fanbase’s patience being tested to the limit.

Then it flipped.

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 season as Boro’s top scorer despite that torturous start. His late surge couldn’t drag Middlesbrough into the Premier League, their promotion hopes eventually crushed in the play-offs, but it did reframe his standing at the club.

New faces, new direction

This summer, the landscape changed again. Middlesbrough have overhauled the squad, bringing in 12 new players, among them on-loan Brighton winger Amario Cozier-Duberry, who arrived on deadline day. Whittaker still began the new campaign in the side, starting all three Championship fixtures up to the win over West Bromwich Albion on 29 August and making five appearances in total.

Now he heads to the United States, leaving behind 14 goals in 66 games for Boro and a career on Teesside that veered from jeers to reliance in the space of a few months.

Colorado, for their part, are betting that the version they’ve signed is the one who tore through that post-Ipswich run, not the striker stranded in a 25-game drought. As a Designated Player, he will be expected to carry a heavy share of the attacking load.

Middlesbrough move on with a rebuilt squad. Whittaker moves on with a fresh stage and a prominent role. The question now is whether his next hot streak arrives 5,000 miles from the Riverside.