Chicago Fire midfielder Sam Williams has been loaned to USL Championship club Colorado Springs Switchbacks for the 2026 season, the clubs announced this morning.
Williams, initially signed to a Fire II deal ahead of last season, appeared seven times in MLS in 2025. He was promoted to the first team in March amidst a midfield injury crisis, but continued to primarily be a second team player for the rest of the year as had been originally planned when he joined the club.
The move to USL allows Williams to get first team minutes somewhere, as opposed to in Chicago, where he would have continued to play with the second team and receive occasional MLS minutes. In 2025, he played just 364 total minutes, but just one league minute after early June. He also featured in the U.S. Open Cup run, starting in the quarterfinal loss to Minnesota United.
Williams is the third Fire player loaned to USL in recent months, following Omari Glasgow (to Loudoun United last summer) and Dean Boltz (to Forward Madison last fall). Neither player's loan went particularly well, but the hope would be that with a full season, Williams will play at a higher and more consistent level. The 20-year-old already has 37 career games in the USL Championship, having played extensively for New York Red Bulls II before he moved onto the University of North Carolina.
The Switchbacks finished 8th place in the USL Western Conference last season and were subsequently eliminated from the playoffs at the quarterfinal stage. Their most notable player is forward Levonte Johnson, a former Chicago FC United, Syracuse, and Vancouver Whitecaps player who featured against the Fire first team in 2024. Jamaican international and career USL star Devon "Speedy" Williams also is currently on the Switchbacks' roster.
