The Chicago Fire had a whirlwind end to their transfer window, making four signings along with four departures on loan or trade in the window’s waning days and announcing a new deal for star winger Philip Zinckernagel.
Combined with the arrival of Robert Lewandowski and ensuing departure of Hugo Cuypers earlier in the window, the Fire’s roster has been significantly overhauled through the course of the summer.
Here’s a rundown of everything that happened in the transfer window, and how they’ve affected the Fire’s roster.
Robert Lewandowski arrival forces roster model change
The first, and biggest move, the Fire made this window was bringing on Polish international Robert Lewandowski in a team-record signing in July. Lewandowski arrived in Chicago shortly ahead of the Fire’s scheduled match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on July 16th – a game that was ultimately postponed to October.
In order to fit Robert Lewandowski on the Fire’s roster alongside Jonathan Bamba and Hugo Cuypers, then the team’s two other Designated Players, the team needed to switch roster construction models: The team had previously used a model which only allowed the team to have two Designated Players DPs alongside up to four U22 Initiative Players.
To roster – and play – all three DPs, they needed to switch to the other model, with three DP and three U22 slots. They also needed an international slot, which they acquired in a trade with FC Cincinnati.
A week later, Hugo Cuypers was sold to CF Monterrey for a reported $7.5 million transfer fee. Because of the impending move, Cuypers was not included in the matchday squad for the team’s game against Inter Miami on July 22nd, and the three DPs never took to the field together.
However, by that point, the team had committed to the 3 DP/3 U22 model, the Fire were locked in to that model for the remainder of the year.
If the Fire were not set to face Vancouver in one of only four matches that MLS held as a showcase in the days before the World Cup final, or had Cuypers’s transfer happened earlier, the Fire would not have had to commit to the model.
Rumors, but little movement
For the majority of the window, the Fire were linked with a number of players, including German international Leon Goretzka, but no moves were made for the majority of the window.
Speaking before the transfer window, Fire Head Coach and Director of Football Gregg Berhalter had indicated that the team intended to make roughly two to three moves, but as rumors swirled and the team pursued multiple targets, roster moves will made until August 15th, when the Fire announced that left back Andrew Gutman was signed to a new contract that will keep the former Fire Academy product with the team through the end of the 2028-29 MLS season.
Nine days later, the Fire announced the loan of Christopher Cupps to Greenock Morton in the second-tier Scottish Championship, in a move designed to give the Fire homegrown professional minutes in a competitive atmosphere.
Remaking the roster in the window’s final days
That period with comparatively little movement in August would prove to be the calm before the storm.
On September 1st, the team announced that they had signed Georgian midfielder Anzor Mekvabishvili from Romania’s top flight and Norwegian defender Andreas Hanche-Olsen from Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga.
Both Hanche-Olsen and Mekvabishvili have profiles that would strengthen the Fire’s roster, but both require international roster slots and visas before they can play. The timeline for visa clearance is opaque – even for experts – and earlier this year, it took from weeks to months for players to make their first appearance after deals were announced.
A day later, the team loaned Viktor Radojević to CF Montréal along with an international slot, completing the team’s annual trade with the Québec side. That move frees a senior roster slot for the Fire, and gives the talented young player a chance to get into a groove of regular minutes that have eluded him so far in Chicago. It also opens a senior roster slot for the Fire, which they will need if either André Franco or Mbekezli Mbokazi.
On Wednesday, September 2nd – the last day for teams to make deals, though they can be announced later – the Fire announced that they had acquired Johan Gómez, a longtime target of the front office since the arrival of Gregg Berhalter in late 2024, and that they had traded Jason Shokalook to Real Salt Lake in exchange for a guaranteed $150,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM), which teams can use to extend the salary cap.
That move gives Shokalook, the 2025 MLS Next Pro Golden Boot winner, a chance at serious MLS minutes at a competitive squad after he failed to establish himself with the Fire’s first team. It also opens a supplemental roster slot.
Supplemental slots are not highly valuable in themselves; however, it does open the pathway for the Fire to move senior players to the supplemental roster if their contract fits certain parameters.
At some point during the window, in an unannounced move, the Fire also exercised Sam Rogers contract option for 2027.
Fire get their third DP
On Wednesday, the team also announced that Phlip Zinckernagel, who set the all-time Fire record last season with 15 goals and 15 assists, was signed to a new deal that will make him a Designated Player.
Moving Zinckernagel to a DP slot for this season makes good cap sense: DPs hit the cap at a fixed amount that is far smaller than roughly $1.8 million max TAM hit that Zinckernagel previously had on the Fire’s salary cap.
However, moving a player on – or off – a roster designation is purely a cap move, and does not need the player’s consent and does not require that players sign a new deal.
MenInRed97 has been informed that because of the salary in his new contract, Zinckernagel can’t be moved off of the DP slot in future years ‒ at least, under current roster rules. Zinckernagel’s contract also expires six months earlier than the previous deal: It now ends at the end of the 2027-2028 season, while the previous deal expired at the end of 2028.
On its surface, that makes the deal puzzling: The new deal is shorter both shorter and for more money. Explaining the deal on Thursday, Berhalter said “he made a case to be a DP. We had a conversation in the off-season and I said, ‘Phil we're trying to make the team better. That's our objective. So we're going to need patience from you.’ To his credit, he was patient. He allowed us to make all the moves that we wanted to make without putting pressure on us. And we made the moves, we got everyone who we wanted, and then we had a DP spot left over. For us, it was the logical thing.”
On changing the terms of the deal, Berhalter said that deals from before when MLS announced the schedule change had an “awkward period of when they end their contract. We wanted to alleviate that.”
On the surface, the move provides the Fire with less flexibility than they had previously, as the team is now locked into their current set of Designated Players through the end of (calendar) 2027 unless they exercise a sale or buyout. Zinckernagel’s performance has been above his contract in his first season and a half in MLS, but the team initially promised him the security of a long-term deal.
The reality is likely more nuanced: Contracts can be renegotiated in the future, and the team has sent a message that they will reward higher performance – and patience – and the deal comes as the sun begins to set for the current MLS Collective Bargaining Agreement, and with it, the current set of cap and roster rules, with the deal set to expire in January 2028, now midway through the 2027-28 season.
The deal ultimately keeps a core part of the team, not just for his on-pitch performance but also because of his leadership in the locker room, happy, while also sending the message to the rest of the group that this team rewards performance and loyalty.
At the buzzer, more moves
On Thursday, with the window closed, the team announced three more deals which had been negotiated previously: Defender Noah Allen is arriving from Inter Miami – initially on loan, with the Fire holding a purchase option – and left back Dylan Borso joining Christopher Cupps at Greenock Morton.
Borso, like Cupps, is moving to get professional minutes in an environment that will present challenges that the two Fire homegrowns would not encounter while playing primarily in MLS Next Pro in Chicago.
The move for Joel Waterman helps clear the way for Hanche-Olsen on the roster, clearing a senior and international roster slot for the Fire. The move also clears considerable cap space: In addition to the $100,000 in GAM that the Fire were given for the trade, MenInRed97 has been informed that Portland is taking on Waterman’s full salary cap hit. Moving on from Waterman essentially allows Hanche-Olsen to slide into his place on the roster, and minimizes the additional cap hit that for bringing on the Norwegian.
The biggest move the Fire made late, however, was one for defender Noah Allen from Inter Miami. Allen has been an on-again, off-again target for years – in fact, since before Berhalter joined, according to remarks he gave to media on Thursday.
The move was completed early on Wednesday but wasn’t announced until Thursday, pending league approval and coordination of the announcement for the two teams.
The structure of the deal here is unique: The move is initially a loan, with the Fire retaining a purchase option in 2027. According to reporting by Tom Bogert at The Athletic, that structure is designed to help Inter Miami with cap management: Teams can only accrue a maximum of $3 million in GAM from sales per year, and Miami has already hit that number with prior sales. Making the deal permanent next year allows the team to translate the reported $3 million from moving Allen to the Fire into additional cap room.
From the Fire’s end, MenInRed97 has been told that Allen, Miami’s all-time appearance leader, will occupy a U22 slot on the Fire’s roster both this year and in the coming years, when his new deal with the Fire is set to begin. (The terms of the deal specify that it is a purchase option, as MLS does not allow purchase obligations on internal moves, but both teams expect the move to be made permanent next year.)
Despite turning 23 next year, Allen can remain U22 for the Fire in 2027 under his new deal because his first contract with Inter Miami included options through that year. This makes his cap hit much friendlier for the Fire considering Allen’s reported transfer fee.
Status of the roster, with one question remaining
The one remaining issue: Fire currently have two players, Franco and Mbokazi, on the short-term injury list. In moving the players to that list, the Fire cleared senior and international roster spots – but playing them again means the Fire must have open slots.
At present, the team has one available international slot and one available senior roster slot. To make both players eligible to play, the team would need to acquire an international slot and free a senior roster slot.
The senior slot can be freed by moving a senior player to the supplemental roster.
For the international slot, although the transfer window is closed, teams can still trade assets, including international slots. With teams largely unable to sign new players except for free agents, the value of those slots has effectively plummeted, allowing the Fire to acquire one if needed.
