Robert Lewandowski scored twice on his home debut for Chicago Fire on Saturday, August 2, as the Major League Soccer club beat Charlotte FC 2-1 at Soldier Field.
The 37-year-old Polish striker joined Chicago Fire this summer from Barcelona. He arrives with 10 German Bundesliga titles, two with Borussia Dortmund and eight with Bayern Munich, along with a Champions League title and three La Liga titles won with Barcelona.
Gregg Broughton's pursuit of Lewandowski
The move was driven by Gregg Broughton, Chicago Fire's 50-year-old sporting director, who was born in Bedford and previously worked as academy manager at Luton and Norwich, sporting director at Blackburn, and in a role at Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt, who this year beat Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter.
"Robert had been somebody the club had their eyes on for a long time," Broughton said. "We understand how MLS works. There is a huge Polish community here in Chicago."
"We tried to sign Neymar in January 2025, we could not get that done but he shared an agent with Lewandowski," Broughton said. "We knew he would have his pick of clubs in Europe, in Saudi Arabia and he might have done another year at Barca. We had to make Chicago Fire his choice."
Broughton said head coach Gregg Berhalter, formerly of the United States national team, travelled to Barcelona, and that Lewandowski's wife was taken out during a business trip to Chicago. The club also sent a private jet to Barcelona to bring Lewandowski and his representatives to the city.
"He knows what world-class looks like, he is alongside Messi and Ronaldo, he is perfect for us," Broughton said. "Robert is humble, easy to get on with, drives standards every day, won't accept things being anything except everyone giving their best at every moment."
Lewandowski's scoring record
Lewandowski's goal tallies read 41 in 82 games for Lech Poznan, 103 in 187 for Dortmund, 344 in 375 for Bayern Munich and 120 in 193 for Barcelona. In 2020 he scored 55 goals in 47 matches and won the Champions League, with that year's Ballon d'Or cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Charlotte FC, beaten 2-1 in Lewandowski's home debut, are managed by Dean Smith, the former Aston Villa, Brentford and Leicester boss, and field several English players including midfielder Ashley Westwood, previously of Villa, Burnley and Crewe Alexandra.
Lewandowski shirts have appeared across Chicago, and Soldier Field saw a large influx of Polish fans creating an atmosphere not usually associated with MLS.
"I'm really happy to be here," Lewandowski said. "I enjoy every day: the lifestyle, the club and the organisation. Everything is really at a top level. I cannot say one bad word about the club, and I'm very impressed that everything is working very well, both on and off the pitch."
Facilities and future ambitions
Chicago Fire's training facilities have hosted Manchester United and Liverpool, and Germany used the base as its World Cup camp. Club staffers this week joked it was a shame Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was not on the club's pre-season tour, given his contract is up next summer.
"Chicago is an incredible city," Broughton said. "The training ground is incredible and that is allowing us to build a world-class club, we are building a new stadium. American sport accepts you can take five years to rebuild a squad, in Europe you don't have that time."
"I want to achieve on-field success and the bigger picture is I want to build upon the footprint of the World Cup and Club World Cup here in America," Broughton said. "Twenty years ago, you never saw football shirts here, now, down by the river, they're everywhere. But we want them to be Chicago Fire shirts. This city stops to talk about sport. When the Bears got to the play-offs, the queues just to get into bars were crazy, you can't get a ticket for love nor money. We know football can do that and the plan is to get Fire to be part of that."
