Robert Lewandowski will join Chicago Fire and is expected to sign his contract at the beginning of the following week. The move sends one of the most recognizable Polish strikers into Major League Soccer after weeks of rumor, travel reports and public pressure around the deal.
Fabrizio Romano On 28 June
Fabrizio Romano reported on 28 June that Lewandowski agreed to join Chicago Fire after a visit to the club and the city two weeks earlier. The report said he is ready for a new chapter in MLS, with the contract signing penciled in for the start of the following week.
That timeline fits a pursuit that had already stretched across several weeks. Gregg Berhalter said on 11 June that work was underway to sign Lewandowski and asked fans for patience, while Meczyki.pl reported the next day that Lewandowski, Pini Zahavi, Tomasz Zawiślak and Kamil Gorzelnik were on a flight to Chicago.
Chicago Fire And The Pursuit
Chicago Fire had been making efforts to convince him before the final report arrived. Janusz Michallik said in February that the club was doing everything to persuade Lewandowski, and Roman Kołtoń later wrote that the Americans impressed him with professionalism and ambition.
The deal would also push Chicago Fire into the same conversation as other MLS names that have raised the league’s profile, with Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Heung-min Son already part of that broader reference point. For Chicago, the move is not just about adding a striker; it is about landing a player who had been linked with Saudi Arabia, Italian and American clubs before the path settled on MLS.
The Athletic And The Turn
The clearest twist is that The Athletic had reported in the spring that signing Lewandowski was considered unlikely. The gap between that view and the 28 June report makes the final agreement harder and more expensive than it first looked, especially with Kołtoń putting the reported pay at 15 million euros per year and up to 20 million with bonuses, plus a possible length of 2 or 3 years.
That money frame suggests Chicago Fire moved far enough to change the player’s view after the visit, and the sign-off now appears to be the last formal step rather than the decision point. Whether the reported contract terms of 15 million euros per year and up to 20 million with bonuses were fully agreed is the remaining piece readers will be watching as the signing window opens at the beginning of the following week.
