United States midfielder Brenden Aaronson said he has "unfinished business" with Leeds United after returning to the Championship team for the 2024-25 season.
Aaronson first joined Leeds in May 2022 from Red Bull Salzburg, signing a five-year contract with the club. He played in England for a year before being loaned to Bundesliga side Union Berlin for the 2023-24 season, where he managed two goals and two assists in 38 appearances across all competitions.
Now, the 23-year-old is back at Leeds with a desire to "prove himself."
"My decision going back to Leeds was, of course, one that took decisions," Aaronson said at a news conference ahead of a pair of U.S. friendlies this month. "I had unfinished business at Leeds and so a lot of things pointed me back to Leeds, you know. That was the biggest thing for me. It was like a feeling and wanting to go back and prove myself again."
Since his return, Aaronson has recorded two goals and one assist in 10 appearances to earn the team's Player of the Month award for August. He played an integral role in his first competitive match back at Elland Road, coming off the bench to score the equalizer in the 3-3 draw against Portsmouth.
"Since I've come back, I would say the first couple of weeks were pretty difficult mentally because you might see some fans getting upset with you and it's just difficult," Aaronson said. "You got to reprove yourself again, but I'm proud of myself. I've come back and done really well. I won Player of the Month, which is really good for me. And that was a really great start. And now I just want to keep building and keep scoring and assisting and yeah, just keep getting better"
Aaronson will now shift his focus to the USMNT as the team readies for games under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino for the first time. Aaronson said the team has already begun learning from the former Tottenham, Chelsea and PSG coach, adding to the "buzz and excitement."
"We've already learned a lot," Aaronson said. "We learned about the style of play that we want to play today at training. One thing that we know for sure that we've really rehashed is the intensity of what we want to play at. We want to play at a high intensity. We want to play in the other team's half. We want to have possession of the ball. He wants a confident team and that's what we're going to be."
The U.S. plays Panama on Oct. 12 at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas before traveling to Guadalajara to for a match against Concacaf rivals Mexico.
Though the USMNT doesn't have a set home stadium, the match against Panama will be its fifth at Q2 Stadium. The Americans won each of their previous four games in Austin, most recently celebrating a 3-0 Concacaf Nations League victory over Trinidad and Tobago in November of 2023.
"We always seem to play well in Austin and have good games, so it's always great coming back," Aaronson said. "The love that we get from the fans and the fan base in Austin is really good too, so yeah just really excited to play and it'll be a really good game against Panama."