Union alum Paxten Aaronson is excited for his homecoming game with Eintracht Frankfurt

For as much of Subaru Park as Paxten Aaronson has seen over the years, he has never been in the visitors’ locker room.

But there’s a first time for everything, including this. On Saturday, the former Union midfielder will walk through that other door with Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt for an exhibition friendly against his old team at Subaru Park (5:30 p.m., streamed live on PhiladelphiaUnion.com.)

“Obviously a nice moment for me, being back at the club that started everything for me,” Aaronson said in a news conference Friday. “Being here since I was 10-years-old, and then progressing up through the ranks, coming through the first team. It’s going to be a special moment being back in the stadium and playing against a lot of familiar faces, so I’m definitely excited for it.”

It hasn’t been too long since the Medford-born star was last in the building. He and his equally-famous brother Brenden, also a Union alumnus, attended their old team’s game against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami over Memorial Day weekend.

Along meeting up with longtime friends, it was a chance to see how much the Union have grown since their departures — Brenden at the end of 2020 and Paxten at the end of 2022. Most of the Union’s training fields and all of their big new indoor facility were built after they left, and even when they were here in May the indoor facility wasn’t done yet.

“When I was a part of the academy, it was still one of the best, but now when I look at it with everything they’ve built, I wish I also would have had that,” Paxten said. “They did a great job of developing my age group, all the young homegrowns that have advanced through and now are playing in Europe. But I think the guys who have it now and the young kids even have it better and it gives them more of a chance to succeed.”

» READ MORE: Brenden and Paxten Aaronson still root for the Union, and want them to win a big trophy

The 21-year-old knows there are many more prospects coming, including the team’s current phenoms in attacking midfielder Cavan Sullivan and striker Malik Jakupovic. And he watches the big squad’s games, hoping as many of the team’s alumni do that this is finally the year for a big trophy.

“The team itself, I think, under the new coach [Bradley Carnell], has done a tremendous job,” Aaronson said. “It’s not easy coming in your first season with high expectations in Philadelphia, with a crowd that expects a lot. He’s done a really good job in kind of shape-shifting the team to how he wants to play, and it’s been fun to watch. When you’re in first place, you can’t complain too much.”

The day’s biggest question overall was whether Aaronson will play for Eintracht in the coming season, instead of going on a third straight loan to get guaranteed playing time. Manager Dino Toppmöller didn’t give an outright yes, but he gave a fairly strong signal that Aaronson will stay.

“I think it was a very good decision that he got playing time,” Toppmöller said. “He was very, very good and was impressive what he did in the Netherlands [on those loans to Vitesse Arnhem and Utrecht], and so now we are very happy to have him back. … We are a team who wants to compete in all the competitions, and therefore we need this size of squad and he is an important part of it.”

» READ MORE: Eintracht Frankfurt hopes to return Germany to the top of destinations for young American players

That last sentence was a reference to Eintracht Frankfurt playing in the UEFA Champions League this season. Along with being some of the biggest games in the sport, the tournament adds eight group-stage contests to the schedule from mid-September to late January. So teams involved need a lot of roster depth.

“Paxten knows that there’s also a big concurrence [competition] in his position, but he showed already in training sessions, today again, that he is able to make the difference up front,” Toppmöller said. “He’s a very important player with pressing — it’s impressive how many ball wins he had already in the games.”

Of course, it’s only preseason, and things will be different when the games count for real. But for now, Aaronson is pleased, and he wants to stay in Frankfurt.

The subject matters even more than usual right now, since it’s less than a year to the World Cup. The final sprint to make the squad begins this month, as the big European leagues kick off again, and the U.S. national team has just eight games left before the tournament: two each in September, October, November, and March.

» READ MORE: As the USMNT’s last sprint for the World Cup nears, Zack Steffen showed his talents in his hometown

Aaronson did not need reminding. He was on the U.S. roster for the Gold Cup and the two big friendlies before then, but he didn’t make much of an impression: just three appearances in the eight games, and two were as a late sub.

The one game he did start was the 4-0 loss to Switzerland, with all four goals coming while he was on the field. Both Aaronsons started that night, and both were among five players subbed off at halftime.

When Paxten was asked if he wants to be at Frankfurt this season, the World Cup was naturally part of the context.

“You mentioned the sprint for the World Cup team — I think if I want to have a good chance of getting on that, I don’t think there’s any better club to be a part of than here at Eintracht,” he said to a reporter who brought it up. “I think when you look at how they’ve done, business-wise, in terms of developing young players, that’s one thing that attracted me when I first came to the club. So I have no doubt that along with the coach and everybody on the staff, everybody’s fully on board in terms of development and things I need to work on to get to that level.”

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