CHICAGO — With the Feb. 26 season opener fast approaching, the Chicago Fire needed to make a significant deal to upgrade their roster.
It appears the Fire did that Wednesday.
The Fire pulled off their biggest move in recent seasons, acquiring attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri from French Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais for a club-record fee of about $7.5 million.
Shaqiri, 30, joins the Fire as a designated player after more than a decade of playing for some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Inter Milan. He is under contract through the 2024 season.
“Xherdan is a game-changing player and someone who will bring joy to our supporters and the city of Chicago,” Fire sporting director Georg Heitz said in a statement. “As one of the most accomplished Swiss athletes of his generation. Xherdan joins us at a very important time for the club and fully believes in what we are aiming to accomplish.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Shaqiri reportedly could become one of the highest-paid players in Major League Soccer.
Shaqiri, who has made 100 appearances for the Swiss national team, at times has struggled with consistency throughout his career and made just 16 appearances for Lyon since moving to France from Merseyside.
But make no mistake — signing Shaqiri is a significant move for the Fire on and off the pitch.
His technical ability and set-piece delivery give the Fire much-needed creativity as the club continues to retool under new coach Ezra Hendrickson, and he arguably is the Fire’s highest-profile signing since Bastian Schweinsteiger in 2017.
“When you sign a player like this for an organization like the Chicago Fire, on the field it’s going to show,” Hendrickson said Wednesday during a conference call. “And off the field, also, (for) fans, just the excitement that’s going to create for us having a player of this quality, that caliber of player is going to really lift the fans and it’s going to create some excitement off the pitch.”
Hendrickson spoke with Shaqiri on Saturday and said he knew “within two to three minutes” it was the right move for the Fire because the attacker is “coming here not for vacation but to win a championship.”
“I just wanted to get a feel and talk to him about how I like to play, how I see the game and how I see him helping the team,” Hendrickson said. “Just getting a feel for him and letting him know that because we are such a young team, he’ll be expected to be a leader on and off the field.
“He was very good. We have a lot of the same ideas about how the game is to be played, and it was a really, really good conversation. Within two to three minutes, I knew, OK, this guy is for real and he really wants to be here, which is very important when you bring in a big-name superstar like that.”
Shaqiri has made more than 400 appearances across all competitions for FC Basel, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Stoke City, Liverpool and Lyon since 2009 and has won 17 major trophies at the club level. Those honors include the UEFA Champions League twice and the German Bundesliga three times, and he was a member of Liverpool’s 2019-20 Premier League championship team, the club’s first English league title in 30 years.
That profile — and financial outlay — comes with big expectations. But it’s something the Fire are banking on as they look to reach the MLS postseason for the first time since 2017, especially with other teams making similar high-profile moves in the offseason. Toronto FC, which also missed the playoffs last season, signed Mexican national team defender Carlos Salcedo and Italian star Lorenzo Insigne, for example.
“He can change games,” Hendrickson said of Shaqiri. “He’s one of the types of players, if you look at teams who have been successful recently and win championships, there’s always that special player — maybe (Valentín) Castellanos last year, a couple years ago Lucas Zelarayán in Columbus, in Atlanta with ... Josef Martínez and those guys like that.
“You need a player that can really be a game-changer, who by the snap of the finger could change the game for you. Maybe it’s an 89th-minute goal or maybe it’s a special, spectacular free kick. I think that’s something he can bring to this team.”
By signing with the Fire, whose interest in the attacking midfielder picked up in January, Shaqiri reunites with Heitz, who previously was Basel’s sporting director.
The Fire have other work to complete — including filling one remaining DP slot, finding a new jersey sponsor and finalizing a TV deal for the upcoming season. But in Shaqiri, they have a star to build around.
