Cavan Sullivan has already rewritten the Major League Soccer record book on the field. Now the 16-year-old Philadelphia Union phenom has done something unprecedented in the sports-card market.
Sullivan’s 2025 Topps Chrome MLS Rookie Debut Patch Autograph 1/1 sold for $324,000 in an Alt auction. The result is the highest reported sale for an MLS card — and more than three times the previous record price for a Sullivan card.
That price makes the sale remarkable beyond Sullivan’s rapidly growing collector market. An American teenager who has yet to make his anticipated move to Manchester City has now produced an MLS card sale worth nearly three times the previous league benchmark.
Sullivan debuted at just 14 and is set to join Manchester City when he turns 18.
(via @altxyzofficial)
Cavan Sullivan Card Blows Past Previous MLS Record
Before Sullivan’s sale, the reported MLS record belonged to a 2024 Topps Now Lionel Messi-Stephen Curry “Night, Night” 1/1 Foilfractor, graded PSA 10, that sold for $111,057.
Sullivan’s card went for nearly $213,000 more.
It was also an enormous jump for Sullivan personally. His previous high had been $90,158 for a 2025 Topps Chrome MLS Rookie Arrival Patch Autograph 1/1. Before that, a 2024-25 Panini Select Black Pitchside Signatures 1/1 autograph had sold for $12,100, according to SI.
The progression illustrates just how aggressively collectors have begun pricing Sullivan’s upside.
And this was not simply another numbered rookie autograph.
The MLS Debut Patch Autograph is as one of the centerpiece autograph offerings in 2025 Topps Chrome MLS, continuing the company’s debut-patch concept in which memorabilia associated with a player’s first appearance becomes the centerpiece of a unique collectible.
Sullivan’s card is stamped 1/1, includes his autograph and features the oversized “DEBUT” patch.
There cannot be another identical copy.
Sullivan’s Historic MLS Debut Gives Card Added Significance
The moment behind the card is already an important one in American soccer history.
Sullivan entered Philadelphia’s 5-1 victory over the New England Revolution on July 17, 2024, at 14 years and 293 days old. MLS said that made him the youngest player to debut for a major North American professional sports team, breaking Freddy Adu’s MLS record by 13 days.
That gives collectors something beyond projected potential: the card is connected to an achievement Sullivan already owns.
What comes next is where the speculation begins.
Philadelphia signed Sullivan to what the club described as the largest Homegrown contract in MLS history. His agreement also includes a future move to Premier League giant Manchester City after he turns 18, a transfer arrangement Sullivan acknowledged when he signed with his hometown club.
That combination — historic debut, extreme scarcity and the possibility of an eventual career at one of the world’s biggest clubs — helps explain why bidders treated the card differently from a typical MLS prospect collectible.
It also creates substantial risk for whoever paid $324,000.
Sullivan is still only 16. A price of that size assumes far more than simply becoming a productive MLS player. At the elite end of the hobby, buyers are effectively wagering on the possibility that the significance attached to Sullivan today will look even greater years from now.
For now, one result is already settled.
Sullivan became the youngest MLS debutant before he could drive legally in most states. Two years later, a one-of-one collectible tied to that beginning has become the most expensive MLS card ever reported.
Philadelphia Union Star Cavan Sullivan’s 1-of-1 MLS Rookie Card Makes History at Auction