Chicago Fire FC have completed the signing of former Barcelona and Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski, 37, joins the MLS side as a free agent on a two-year deal after his contract with Barça expired this month.
Talks between the Fire and Lewandowski have been ongoing for months, with an agreement closed last week when the Poland international visited Chicago.
Chicago Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter said the club had been working on this deal for a year and a half.
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“It first came into the picture probably in January of [20]25,” Berhalter told ESPN of the signing. “And then here we are, June of [20]26, and we’re finally making the signing. We’ve been persistent. We’ve, you know, just kept contact with him, kept contact with his representative. This was a move that everyone truly believes is a great opportunity for Robert and for the city of Chicago.
“I think that it’s very rare that a person wins every single place he goes,” Berhalter said. “And that’s Robert’s track record. Not only does the team that he plays for win, but he performs at a very high level. There’s no player in the top five leagues that has scored more goals than Robert in the last 15 years.
“I would call him the best forward of this generation. I don’t think there’s been a better forward in the last decade and a half than Robert Lewandowski.
“And he’s certainly worth waiting for. Yeah, we obviously want to be careful with his loading but he wants to play, we want to play him. So he’s going to use the next couple of weeks to gain fitness and get into rhythm and then we want to play him. Hopefully he makes his debut on July 16th.”
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There had also been strong interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia and Europe, sources told ESPN, but Lewandowski has opted to continue his career in the United States.
The Fire are signing one of the game’s most prolific goal scorers to boost their chances of winning their first MLS Cup since 1998, with Gregg Berhalter’s team currently third in the Eastern Conference after 14 games.
Lewandowski recently brought an end to a four-year spell at Spanish champions Barcelona, where he netted 120 goals in 193 games.
During his time at Camp Nou, he won seven trophies, including three LaLiga titles, after joining from Bayern Munich for €45 million in 2022.
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Prior to signing for Barça, Lewandowski scored a staggering 344 goals in 375 appearances over eight years with Bayern, where he won 19 titles, including eight Bundesligas and one Champions League.
He also won two Bundesliga titles with Borussia Dortmund, in 2011 and 2012, where he scored 103 goals in 187 games for the German side after making his name in his native Poland with Lech Poznań.
Individually, he was named The Best FIFA Men’s Player in 2020 and 2021, although he missed out on the Ballon d’Or in 2020 as it was postponed due to the pandemic.
Even Lionel Messi, winning the Ballon d’Or in 2021, recognised that Lewandowski had “deserved” to win it the previous year.
Inter Miami’s Messi and Lewandowski will now be rivals in the MLS, with their respective teams both competing in the Eastern Conference.
They could meet on the pitch as soon as July 22, when Inter Miami CF host the Chicago Fire at Nu Stadium.
However, with Messi and Argentina currently progressing at the World Cup, coupled with no current timeline on how soon Lewandowski will be able to play for the Fire, that reunion may have to wait.
