In the final 72 hours of the summer transfer window, Gregg Berhalter’s Chicago Fire saw four players arrive, and four players depart. It was a seemingly hectic end to what was already one of the most consequential windows in club history.
In a league where, typically, the mid-season summer window is the less eventful of the two transfer periods, the Fire made a total of 14 moves and reshaped their first team squad into something that is, in many ways, unrecognizable from the team that played out the first half of the season prior to the World Cup. And while the two biggest deals were both done right at the beginning of the summer, it was in the final week that really felt like a whirlwind.
“In terms of our process, it wasn't chaotic at all,” Berhalter said Thursday. “All four of these players we’ve scouted for years… I think the complication with everything is, how do you fit the pieces together? What pieces do you have to move on to make room for what you’re bringing in? I think there were some complications with that, but at the end of the day, everyone is in a good place now and it's time to get the team consolidated and ready to go.”
The first bombshell of the summer came before the window was even officially open. The Fire’s puruit of legendary Polish center forward Robert Lewandowski finally came to a close after many years, with his move to MLS finally being made official on June 29th.
Lewandowski’s signing brought the Fire to three Designated Players on the roster; given Berhalter’s plan to play with two strikers, also including then-MLS Golden Boot-leading Hugo Cuypers, everything was going as expected. Ahead of the return to play on July 16th, the Fire switched to a 3 Designated Player / 3 Under-22 Initiative roster contrustion model, which would have made them fully compliant for that game against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
However, that dream of seeing Lewandowski and Cuypers play together would never happen. The game against Vancouver was postponed due to air conditions; within two days, Cuypers handed in a transfer request, and by early the next week he was boarding a flight to Monterrey, Mexico to join Rayados. Since teams are not allowed to revert back to the 2 DP/4 U-22 model once they have already switched, that left the Fire in an awkward spot with an unused DP slot and the need to completely rethink the summer window.
“I think it gave us flexibility,” Berhalter said, highlighting the opporunity that the open slot brought. “We were prepared to play with Hugo. That's well documented. We wanted to see how that would work and if it didn't work, we had other options.”
Those other options included going out and signing another big-money star. Most publicly, the club offered a contract to Germany international Leon Goretzka, but that move never happened as the box-to-box midfielder was desperate to stay in Europe and ultimately joined Aston Villa late in the window.
There were plenty of other names on the Fire’s list, including other midfielders and a few big names from across the pond, but there was also an idea that such a signing might limit the team’s ability to strengthen in other areas; in the end, that is not the route they opted to go down.
“For us, it gave us the flexibility to really look hard at the market,” Berhalter said. “We spoke to a number of DP-caliber players, and at the end of the day, we decided to go the route we did. It doesn't mean that will always be the case or that we won't make another move in the winter, but right now, we are satisfied with the additions.”
After last Saturday’s 2-2 draw in Seattle, the clock was really starting to tick, with just four days left in the window at that stage. Monday was the day everything had to be put into motion, and that’s exactly what happened as three moves were all but finalized that day. On Tuesday morning, the Fire unveiled their first two of the deadline singings – Georgian international Anzor Mekvabishvili came in from the Romanian league, while Mainz 05 center back Andreas Hanche-Olsen. They announced the addition of versatile Eintracht Braunschweig player Johan Gómez on Wednesday, and finalized the signing of Noah Allen from Inter Miami later that day.
“We want to compete to win every game and take one game at a time,” Berhalter said. “I think we have a balanced roster in terms of age and young players mixed in with older players. It's the evolution of the team. We want to keep getting better. When I look at the roster today, as opposed to a week ago, I think it's a better roster.”
“I think we have more depth in almost every position and I think it's a strong roster. Now it's time for us to keep going, keep pushing and keep building towards the end of the year.”
These two moves were both big ones for the Fire. Even if he doesn’t quite have the international reputation of some of the names that were in the Fire’s orbit this year, he fills an important need and that is a central midfielder. A boost at the #8 position was the single biggest “must” of the window, and Mekvabishvili’s signing gives an immediate option to start in a three-man midfield with Djé D’Avilla and Anton Salétros.
At center back, Hanche-Olsen is also the upgrade Berhalter was hoping for. Since Mbekezeli Mbokazi suffered a major injury in July, Joel Waterman had largely been the starter next to Jack Elliott, but his inconsistent performances left the Fire searching for alternatives. In the end, that swap was the one that happened; when the Hanche-Olsen deal got over the line, Waterman was sent to the Portland Timbers, who, crucially, took on his full salary and hefty cap hit.
Though Hanche-Olsen hasn’t played a competitive match since last December, his impressive Bundesliga résumé with Mainz makes this a $2 million gamble worth taking. It will make things interesting when Mbokazi returns from injury, however, given the presence of three players who won’t expect anything less than to be the starter.
“The biggest complication that we’re going to have right now in the remainder of the season is picking a starting XI,” Berhalter said. “That’s going to be the hardest thing. We have six good attacking players, and all of them deserve to be on the field.”
For a while, Inter Miami left back Noah Allen is someone who was on the Fire’s list. The team had tried to sign him on loan several years ago, even before Berhalter got to the club. This summer, he was once again discussed as a possible new signing who could boost the Fire’s depth at both left back and left center back.
However, just a week ago, this pursuit seemed dead. With the deadline fast approaching, it appeared that Allen would be staying at Miami for the rest of the season, even if he was struggling to get starting minutes behind Sergio Reguilón. Then, on Tuesday, that compeltely changed when the Fire reached an agreement with Miami for the player.
The only question from there was what was the structure of the deal going to be. That was ultimately sorted out, with the deal being set up as an initial loan that is expected to be made permanent for $3 million at the end of the season. He also becomes a U-22 Initiative player, despite already being 22 and not having been on such a deal at Miami.
The clubs still had to wait for league approval before the move could be confirmed, even though it was internally considered a “done deal” by Wednesday morning – that made for a little bit of external anxiety in the final hours of deadline day – but in the end it was all sorted and he was announced as a new Fire player on Thursday morning.
“Noah Allen is a guy we were familiar with,” Berhalter said. “Very good mentality, very competitive mentality, MLS champion, started in the final at center back, preferred position is left back, but this gives us versatility also. I think he's a player with a bright future. I think all of these moves are designed to make our group better.”
To make way for Allen, Serbian backup left back Viktor Radojević was sent to CF Montréal, also on an initial loan through the end of 2026. Radojević vacated a U-22 slot with the move, making it possible for Allen to seamlessly slide onto the Fire’s roster. Another roster slot was opened with the departure of backup striker Jason Shokalook, who was effectively unused for the full season; loan exits for Christopher Cupps and Dylan Borso did not open roster slots.
There was one extra roster change that needed to be made on the final day of the window. Remember how the Fire were forced to switch to a 3 DP / 3 U-22 model, and were locked into it even though they did not add a third DP? Well, because of that switch they were incentivized to fill that third slot one way or another.
In the end, it was winger Philip Zinckernagel who did so. He received a new contract this week, being upgraded from a TAM player to a Designated Player just like that. The contract is also a reward for his strong play over the last year-and-a-half, which has seen him named an MLS All-Star twice while exceeding every expectation that anyone had for him; in 2025, he recorded statistically the best individual season in Fire history, and has followed it up with more strong play in 2026.
“We had a conversation in the off-season,” Berhalter said of Zinckernagel. “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.”
The Fire are now locked in to Zinckernagel being a DP for the remainder of his contract in the next year, which does remove some flexibility heading into the next two transfer windows, but from an individual standpoint, the Danish winger absolutely earned the new contract.
“Phil is performing well again this year. He's a very important player on this team. He's an All-Star again this year, and it's a case where someone has earned this designation. And, congratulations to Phil and his family for his performance.”
That brought the Fire to where they are now – a strengthened team after a busy end to the transfer window, but after the initial shock of Cuypers’ sudden exit, everything more of less seems to have gone according to plan. Berhalter made a clear upgrade at center back, signing a potentially starting calber midfielder to fill a gap in the squad, boosted depth in multiple positions, and took Inter Miami’s all-time leading appearance holder off of their hands in a carefully structured move.
Now, the interesting part; how will it look on the field? The Fire have their best shot at MLS Cup in decades this season, and are clearly going all-in to put themselves in the best possible position to achieve that goal. And considering that after this weekend, their next four games – Miami, New England, Nashville, and Charlotte – come against the other top 5 side in the East, we’re going to learn a lot about this team very quicky.
