On the pitch, the Chicago Fire have finished their last preseason matches and are spending doing final tune ups, and working to get fit – whether that means for 90 minutes or fit to play at all. Off the pitch, however, the team has work to do as they work to get roster compliant for the 2026 MLS campaign, something that must happen by no later than 7 PM Central on February 20th, one day before the Fire take on Dynamo.

Although that deadline is a real one, teams in MLS can continue to make moves through the end of the primary transfer window on March 26th. That includes trades between MLS teams, purchases or loans from abroad and loans or sales within between MLS and USL teams. While in theory, players can be sold or moved overseas at any time when that country's window is open, in reality, MLS's window is open later than those in most leagues around the world.

After March 26th, teams can buy out a player or place them on waivers and sign free agents, but such moves are relatively rare.

International Slots Still A Slight Issue

One barrier to submitting a compliant roster by Thursday evening is the number of international players on the Fire's roster. The Fire have significantly turned over their roster over the past two seasons, with most incoming moves coming from abroad

Gregg Berhalter and the Fire's front office revamped about half of the Fire's roster ahead of the 2025 season, bringing on mostly players from abroad that require international slots. At the same time, the Fire's previous mix of strategy, lawyers and luck that enabled the team to rush through Green Cards for players (thereby making them domestic for roster purposes) has slowed.

A combination of national factors, including government layoffs and highly-publicized government around immigration have also worked to significantly slow all aspects of the the immigration process, including visas as well as permanent residency (Green Card) applications.

Those factors combined to leave the Fire with 13 international players on their roster – five more than the eight international slots they had available at the start of the year.

Earlier this month, the Fire acquired a total of three international slots in two separate transactions. On February 3rd, the Fire traded $600,000 in 2026 GAM (the salary-cap extending currency of MLS) and $250,000 in 2027 GAM (which cannot be used this season) in exchange for two slots for the Colorado Rapids. A day later, the team announced they had acquired a third from the San Jose Earthquakes for $350,000 in GAM, giving them 11 slots in total.

Technically, that leaves the Fire two short of the total they need – but there's a carve out: If the Fire don't have an international slot available for a particular player, then that player can't be registered and therefore, can't compete in MLS or other official competitions including the U.S. Open Cup or Leagues Cup.

André Franco is currently unavailable due to an ACL injury, and Berhalter has indicated he won't be available until after the World Cup break ends in July, during the secondary window. In practice, not having a slot for the Portuguese midfielder makes no practical difference for the Fire until that time.

That still leaves the team with one fewer slots than the total they need, however. To bridge that gap, the team could either trade for another slot, sell or loan an international player elsewhere (as happened with Omari Glasgow for the end of the 2025 campaign).

Until the team could make that move, the team could temporarily have a player – possibly Vijktor Radojević, who is also facing an injury and didn't see action in preseason or in 2025 after being signed by the Fire in late August – unable to compete. Depending on Radojević's timeline for being ready to compete, that, too could have no practical difference on the team's gameday rosters.

While leaving a healthy player unable to be rostered or loaning one out is far from ideal, both options may be more palatable than expending even more GAM on slots this year – particularly at this stage of the season

Sam Williams Loan Thins Crowded Midfield

The other recent move by the Fire, coming last week, was to loan midfielder Sam Williams to the Colorado Springs Switchbacks of the USL Championship.

Williams was signed to a first team deal by the Fire last March when a slate of injuries early in the 2025 season left the Fire with just two healthy midfielders eligible to play. Although Williams was a highly-rated prospect, he was not in the team's first team plans for 2025 and made just two league appearances after March, playing 78 minutes against D.C. Untied in June and a single minute against FC Cincinnati in July.

The loan to the Switchbacks puts him in line for significantly more minutes than he would have been in line for with the Fire first team this year, and at a higher level in the second-tier USL Championship than he would have experienced in MLS Next Pro, on the third tier of the U.S. soccer pyramid.

It also opens a supplemental roster slot for the Fire, enabling the Fire to sign another promising young player to a reserve deal.

The move also thins out what was once a very crowded midfield group for the Chicago Fire, with the team at one point having 12 midfielders available including Robert Turdean, who is eligible to play in as many as six MLS matches while on an "off roster homegrown" designation.

While the move clears a pathway for further development for Williams, more moves are likely as the Fire work to get to roster compliance and make other changes ahead of a promising 2026 season.