Polish football icon Lewandowski joins US club Chicago Fire
Robert Lewandowski, Poland's most celebrated footballer, has signed a contract with the Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire after leaving Spain's FC Barcelona.
"Chicago Fire FC today announced its acquisition of global football icon and Poland's all-time leading goal scorer Robert Lewandowski as a Designated Player," the American club wrote on its website on Monday evening local time.
The team's trainer Gregg Berhalter was quoted in the statement as saying that together with the club's owner Joe Mansueto, they set out to "build a world-class Club that inspires greatness, unites Chicago and wins championships."
"Robert embodies those values and represents the standards this city deserves: a champion and a competitor," Berhalter said. "His arrival reinforces our ambition to compete for trophies and raises the standards for the Club to heights worthy of this city. We cannot wait to get to work with him and have Chicago see first-hand why he is among the most revered sporting icons in the world."
In May, Lewandowski announced that the 2025/26 campaign would be his final season with FC Barcelona, where he had played since joining the Spanish giants in 2022.
Ahead of the 2022/23 season, he completed a EUR 45 million move to FC Barcelona after eight successful years with Bayern Munich, with the deal also including up to EUR 5 million in performance-related bonuses.
Lewandowski leaves Barcelona after scoring 119 goals in 191 appearances, making him the club's 14th-highest goal scorer of all time, the club wrote in a statement following the announcement. (PAP)
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