CARSON, Calif. (Friday, December 14, 2012) – The LA Galaxy announced today that the club has traded forward Edson Buddle to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for allocation money and Colorado’s first round pick in the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft. Buddle, who re-joined the Galaxy in February 2012 after spending a year with FC Ingolstadt in the German 2. Bundesliga, scored three goals in 28 appearances for the club in all competitions, helping LA win their second straight MLS Cup championship.

The fourth leading scorer in Galaxy history, Buddle originally joined LA in June 2007 and spent three and a half seasons with the club, scoring 42 times in 87 regular season appearances. An MLS All-Star in 2008 and again in 2010 when he scored a career-best 17 goals despite missing more than a month of games while representing the United States at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Buddle left MLS in January 2011, signing with FC Ingolstadt. The only player in MLS history to score 40 or more goals for two different clubs, Buddle scored 10 goals during his time overseas before re-joining the Galaxy in February.

Buddle, who has 93 goals in 250 career regular season games with the Galaxy, Columbus, New York and Toronto FC, scored in the Galaxy’s regular season opener against Real Salt Lake on March 10, but was limited to just two more goals the rest of the year. He missed two months of the season while recovering from surgery on his right knee and appeared in five of the club’s postseason games, making three starts. Buddle leaves the Galaxy having scored 45 goals in 106 regular season appearances for the club, as well as two goals in 12 postseason appearances.