Hull City have signed centre-back Lucas Herrington from Colorado Rapids, with the move confirmed this week. The 18-year-old has signed a five-year contract at the MKM Stadium, running through to the summer of 2031. The fee is reported at $17m (around €14.8m), with performance add-ons that could push the total value above $23m (about €20m). It is the largest fee ever paid for a defender leaving Major League Soccer — roughly three times more than the $10.7m Colorado received for Moïse Bombito's move to OGC Nice in 2024 — and Colorado have retained a sell-on percentage on any future transfer.
Hull are back in the Premier League after a nine-year absence, having won promotion through the Championship play-offs last season, and owner Acun Ilicali has backed manager Sergej Jakirović to strengthen the squad for the step up. Hull had already broken their transfer record once this summer, paying around £20m for Greek goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis. Herrington was drawing interest from bigger clubs too — Liverpool had scouted him during the season but never followed up with an offer — and Hull moved instead. His numbers in MLS this year explain why: he ranked fourth in the league for pass completion, at 94.1%, and fourth for aerial duels won, numbers that point to a defender who is comfortable both defending and building attacks from the back.
For Colorado Rapids, it is a heavy loss on the pitch but a huge financial win. Herrington had been an ever-present since arriving from Brisbane Roar for a reported €900,000 just twelve months earlier, starting all but one of Colorado's 18 MLS matches this season and playing the second-most minutes of anyone in the squad. He helped the Rapids to six clean sheets in 20 appearances and was picked for the 2026 MLS All-Star Game. Rapids president Pádraig Smith said the deal reflected how highly the club rated him: "You can scout, you can watch, you can talk to the player, but it's only when they come over here and you're watching them with the group that you really get the sense of just how talented this kid is."
Herrington's stock rose further over the summer at the World Cup, where he became one of the youngest players to start for Australia in the tournament, playing in the last-16 loss to Paraguay and the full 90 minutes against Egypt. In Colorado's colours this season he also chipped in with a goal and an assist from centre-back, but it was his consistency and composure on the ball that stood out — a level of maturity well beyond his age, and the reason Hull have committed to such a long contract rather than treating this as a short-term move.
At Hull, Herrington will compete for a starting spot in central defence from the outset, arriving with more senior experience than most 18-year-olds new to English football — a World Cup on the back of his first full season of senior club football. "To play in the Premier League is a dream come true," he said after signing. With Hull determined to avoid an immediate return to the Championship, the length of the deal — five years, into 2031 — suggests the club see him as a long-term building block for the defence rather than a short-term fix.