Following months of rumors and speculation and a high-profile visit to Chicago, Polish superstar striker Robert Lewandowski has agreed to join the Chicago Fire, the team announced today.
The deal is for two years which includes the remainder of this season, the 2027 spring sprint season and the 2027-2028 MLS season which follows the league's switch to a European-style calendar. It also includes an option for a third year, which would see Lewandowski headline the opening of McDonald's Park, the Chicago Fire's under-construction stadium, in the summer of 2028.
The move ends the Fire’s pursuit of a global superstar whose name and stature match the team’s ambitions under owner Joe Mansueto, which included a high-profile chase of Brazilian legend Neymar Jr. early in 2025 and attempts to sign Belgian midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, among others.
In Lewandowski, the Fire have one of the most talented strikers in the world, with a résumé that includes some of the biggest clubs on the planet, such as FC Bayern München and FC Barcelona. Since joining Borussia Dortmund ahead of the 2010–11 season, no player on the planet has scored more goals in Europe’s top leagues than Lewandowski. In that time, he has won two league titles with Dortmund, eight with Bayern Munich, and three with Barcelona. Across all competitions, the Polish superstar has scored over 700 goals and is Poland’s all-time leading scorer with 89 goals in 169 international appearances.
As had been rumored, sources tell MIR97 Media that the move is valued at eight figures, making the 37-year-old Polish international one of the highest-paid players in MLS.
Although Lewandowski was brought in for his ability to make a contribution to the team on the pitch, he may make an even larger contribution off of it: Lewandowski is one of the most recognizable names in the global game and has a profile second to few – or none – in the league other than Lionel Messi.
He will help the team rekindle a connection with the city’s Polish community that dates back to the addition of Piotr Nowak as the team’s first-ever signing. More recent Polish signings with the team, including Przemysław Frankowski, who spent three years with the club between 2019 and 2021, and Kacper Przybyłko, MLS’s all-time leading Polish goal scorer with 44 league goals, have failed to recapture that interest. Lewandowski, however, easily eclipses not only those names but also those of Nowak and the other Polish players like Jerzy Podbrožny and Roman Koseki, who joined the Fire early in the club’s existence.
Lewandowski’s arrival will likely have a similar effect on the Fire as Son Heung-Min’s did for Los Angeles FC, where he instantly raised the profile of the team in a significant community in the area – and helped sell tickets in the process. As with Son’s arrival to MLS last summer, Lewandowski’s arrival in Chicago will be a rare case of a superstar talent coming to one of the league’s contenders, with the Fire currently third place in MLS’s Eastern Conference standings and fifth in the overall table.
The move raises questions about the future of Hugo Cuypers, the Fire’s club-record signing and current MLS Golden Boot leader. Sources have told MIR97 Media that the current plan is to retain Cuypers, who has scored 40 goals with the club since arriving in January 2024, and play him alongside Lewandowski.
Cuypers has reiterated since the start of the season that he has not been bothered by external rumors around the center forward position in Chicago, but with the Lewandowski signing now a reality, that question becomes harder to dodge. As Lewandowski’s hefty salary requires him to be a Designated Player, this means that two of the Fire’s three DP slots are occupied by players in the same position, and with winger Jonathan Bamba serving as the team’s third DP, they have no open slots.
The Fire will have time this summer to decide if the pair have a working partnership: MLS adjusted the transfer windows ahead of this season, lengthening the summer window until September 2nd. Although this move was primarily aimed at bringing in talent from outside the league, it also means that intra-MLS moves can be made until that date, far later in the season than in earlier years. Reports from Tom Bogert and Paul Tenorio at The Athletic, amongst others, have stated that there is ongoing interest from within the league in the Belgian forward, who has proven his ability to score under a variety of conditions in MLS.
With the team lacking a proven creative midfielder following André Franco’s injury and Brian Gutiérrez’s departure, and possibly in anticipation of Lewandowski’s possible arrival, the Fire experimented with a nominal 4-4-2 formation (albeit with only one true #9). Adding Lewandowski into the mix instantly transforms the profile of that attack, with Cuypers providing mobility and pressing ability that Lewandowski now lacks, and the Polish striker combining his ability to draw defenders with his lethal finishing ability.
The open transfer window also means there is still potential for the Fire to make other signings this summer, though Lewandowski’s DP status makes that more difficult; German international Leon Goretzka, a former teammate of Lewandowski and fellow Champions League winner with FC Bayern, has been in talks with the club, but will not make a decision until after Germany’s World Cup concludes. Additionally, if Goretzka’s proposed salary is anything remotely near the €13 million ($14.5 million US) that he currently earns, the Fire would need to figure out how to open a DP slot for him – meaning either Cuypers or Jonathan Bamba would have to be moved.
Significantly, the deal spans the time until the Fire are scheduled to open McDonald’s Park in the summer of 2028, and includes the chance at three separate Supporters Shield and MLS Cup championships: One this fall, another during the shortened 2027 “sprint season” starting next February and continuing through the spring, and a third running from the 2027-2028 seasons, after MLS has switched to the European schedule.
Sources have told MIR97 Media that the team anticipates that Lewandowski will have no issues getting a visa and completing his transfer papers in time to be eligible to play in the team’s next match, when they take on Thomas Müller ‒ a teammate of Lewandowski’s for a decade at FC Bayern ‒ and the Vancouver Whitecaps at Soldier Field on July 16.
