For a time, Krakus Polish Ham was one of the leading sponsors of the Chicago Fire Football Club. This little fact says so much about the demographics of both the supporter base and the city itself. Robert Lewandowski, the most iconic Polish footballer of this generation, is coming to Chicago, the city with the highest numbers of Poles out outside of Poland. He’s going to fit in great!
Lewandowski has been a free agent since his FC Barcelona contract expired at the end of this past season.
Robert Lewandowski will join Chicago Fire on a two-year contract, per multiple reports.
Another football legend heading to MLS 🇵🇱🔥 pic.twitter.com/1BPque6Knr
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 28, 2026
According to multiple outlets, Florian Plettenburg, Ben Jacobs, Fabrizio Romano, ESPN, The Athletic etc. etc. Lewandowski, 37, is a done deal, as he’ll sign a two year contract.
Lewy and his agent visited Chicago two weekends ago, as they were still deciding on what was next for him after Barca. This led to a lot of jumping the gun, from various content creators, who claimed that the deal was already done, long before it actually was.
Lewandowski to the Fire is a signing where you can hold two directly opposing ideas in your head, at the same time, and both can be completely correct.
The Fire don’t need a pure goal-scorer, as they already have Hugo Cuypers, who leads the MLS in goals scored.
On the other hand, today is a pretty big day in CFFC history. Lewandowski is right up there with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Xherdan Shaqiri as the biggest brand name players in Fire history.
No one has scored more goals, in the last 15 years, across the big five professional leagues in the world than Lewandowski did.
Obviously, the Schweinsteiger signing worked out a whole lot better than the Shaqiri addition did.
And there an estimated 720,000-900,000 residents of Polish ancestry in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. A lot of them are going to be fired up about this signing. So yes, all of this is true, all at the same time.
If the Fire were a Lamborghini, than Lewandowski would not be the engine, or the steering wheel, or the brakes, and definitely not the tires.
However, he might be the rear spoiler, red paint job and hood ornament, all at the same time.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.