The Long Line of Chicago Fire Goalkeepers

On December 11th, 2016, the Chicago Fire made a trade that would have tremendous knock-on effects for years to come. Standout goalkeeper Sean Johnson was sent to Atlanta United in exchange for allocation money, and it set in motion a revolving door at his position. For half a decade, the goalkeeper spot was an Achilles' Heel for the Fire until the emergence of Gaga Slonina, and now he has already been sold.

Tomorrow, 19-year-old Chris Brady will make his first appearance as the Fire’s starter. He is the 12th goalkeeper to play for the Fire since Johnson was traded, and if all goes according to plan, he will finally be a reliable pair of hands for many seasons to come. Before Brady gets his chance against the Philadelphia Union this weekend, let’s look back at the eleven keepers who have been rolled out as the Fire sought to replace Sean Johnson.

1. Jorge Bava

The signing of 35-year-old Uruguayan goalkeeper Jorge Bava came about when he ran into then-Fire head coach Veljko Paunović at the airport in Colombia. Despite being past his prime, he was brought in to be the #1 at the start of the 2017 season. Paunović and then-GM Nelson Rodríguez hoped Bava would be a steady veteran pair of hands that could adequately replace Johnson. He was anything but that.

Bava, simply put, was just not very good. He started the first eight matches of the season, and shipped 12 goals. Despite the additions of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Nemanja Nikolić, and Dax McCarty, the Fire won just three of those eight games, including a 4-0 loss to expansion team Atlanta United. At the time it was cited that he was having trouble adjusting to playing in the United States, and between a language barrier and a different style of play, it was just never going to work out. After a 2-1 defeat at the New York Red Bulls, he was sent to the bench. Bava would never play for the Fire again and was released at the end of the season.

2. Matt Lampson

The man who replaced Bava was his backup, Matt Lampson. Lampson had actually already been at the Fire for a year and had played a few games in 2016 as Johnson’s #2, but this was his first chance to be the starter and he showed that he was a clear upgrade on Bava. The Fire were immediately a better team and embarked on a sensational run of form. Lampson has first handed the starting job on May 7th – he wouldn’t lose his first game after that point until July 22nd, his twelfth appearance of the year.

That Fire team is remembered fondly as the best one of the last decade (see our story on it here), but it all started to fall apart towards the end. Lampson conceded 11 goals in a 4-game span in August, and fans started to turn on him. He was even benched twice down the stretch. Nonetheless, Paunović handed him the gloves for the first round of the playoffs against the New York Red Bulls… the Fire lost 4-0, and Lampson was sent to Minnesota United for $75,000 in GAM.

3. Richard Sánchez

In the midst of that aforementioned August losing streak, the Fire started to look at some other options. Jorge Bava was injured, so the Fire needed a backup who could provide competition for Lampson. Mexican goalkeeper Richard Sánchez was brought in, and while he was yet to make a top-flight debut, he was highly rated and brought with him a résumé that included a U-17 World Cup title. While he mostly rode the bench in 2017, only making two appearances, he showed promise, and when Lampson was traded in 2018, Sánchez became the starter.

2018 was not nearly as good of a season for the Fire as 2017 was, and it marked a return to mediocrity. Sánchez did not find much success individually, either, keeping just three clean sheets throughout the season. He was first benched over the summer, and it was permanent by the end of the year. Sánchez did not play in the final five games of the season, and while he stuck around as a reserve in 2019, his only appearance that season came in the original Leagues Cup, a 2-0 loss to Cruz Azul.

4. Patrick McLain

Patrick McLain had actually been the Fire’s third-string keeper in 2016, but he resigned with the team in 2018 after a year in Minnesota. When Sánchez’s early performances were dwindling in 2018, McLain was handed the starting job ahead of the Mexican on May 27th. He was good enough to keep the starting job for the next two matches, relegating Sánchez to the bench, but in just his third appearance, he got injured. His time as the Fire’s starting goalkeeper lasted just two-and-a-half matches.

McLain missed almost the entirety of the rest of 2018 and only returned for the final two matches. He was released at the end of the season.

5. Stefan Cleveland

Stefan Cleveland was drafted by the Fire in 2017 but naturally didn’t play in his first season and spent time on loan in USL. In 2018, he was the #3 behind Sánchez and McLain, and was the backup when McLain was out. Cleveland made his MLS debut on August 5th, making him the second different goalkeeper to bench Sánchez that season; it was the first of five appearances, among them a 3-1 win over LAFC, but he could not hold onto the starting job, and never played for the Fire again after 2018.

After going on loan again in 2019, Cleveland was traded to Seattle at the end of the year.

6. David Ousted

Paunović entered his fourth season as Fire head coach in 2019 with yet another new starting goalkeeper. David Ousted was claimed off waivers following six seasons in MLS with the Vancouver Whitecaps and DC United, and was handed the #1 shirt. Ousted was the starter from day one, but 2019 did not start in the way that the Fire had hoped. When his former club, the Whitecaps, visited in the Spring, Ousted made a very silly mistake, and by the seventh game of the season, the Fire had just one win.

Just two months after Ousted made his Fire debut, Nelson had already signed his replacement, and from Week 18 onwards, Ousted would never again make the Fire’s gameday roster (except for one random 3-2 road loss in August against the Timbers in which he started). He left at the end of the season.

7. Kenneth Kronholm

The man brought in to oust Ousted following his rocky start was experienced German-American keeper Kenneth Kronholm from Holstein Kiel. Once he arrived, it was clear that he was going to be the starter, and Kronholm started all but one of the remaining games in 2019. While Kronholm was prone to an occasional gaffe, he was a clear upgrade and the Fire were much better than they had been early in the year. The Fire lost just one of their last ten games to close out the season with Kronholm between the sticks and made a late playoff push but came up just three points short in the end.

While most of the roster shifted from 2019 to 2020, Kronholm stuck around as the team rebranded and moved to Soldier Field. He started the two pre-COVID matches and started all three games of the MLS is Back Tournament, but those would prove to be the last games of his career. Kronholm suffered an ACL injury in training before the regular season resumed, and he could never get healthy again. He retired after the end of 2021, though he hadn’t played since the Disney bubble.

8. Bobby Shuttleworth

Ahead of that 2020 season, experienced MLS vet Bobby Shuttleworth was brought in to be Kronholm’s backup. What Shuttleworth probably didn’t expect was that he'd be the starter for almost a year. Following Kronholm’s ACL injury in August, the 33-year-old stepped in as the league played an abridged season. He wasn’t great, but no one really seemed to care; the Fire missed the playoffs by a point.

In 2021, with Kronholm’s recovery timeline repeatedly pushed back, Shuttleworth kept playing. He had some really good moments that season, but the Fire were just very, very bad. There was little he could do as the goals rained into his net. When the Fire were out of the playoff race, head coach Rafa Wicky saw no point in handing any more appearances to Shuttleworth, and his career in Chicago came to an end with the Fire 14 points out of the playoffs.

9. Connor Sparrow

Connor Sparrow is, respectfully, more of a Fire footnote than any of the other players in this chronology. Ahead of the COVID season in 2020, he was signed as the third-string behind Kronholm and Shuttleworth. Following Kronholm’s injury, there was one game in which Shuttleworth had a minor groin tweak. Sparrow, a registered nurse, started the game against NYCFC on August 29th.

The Fire lost 3-1, and he was released at the end of the season.

10. Gaga Slonina

After all these years, it was starting to seem like the Chicago Fire goalkeeper position was cursed. Since the departure of Sean Johnson the Fire have had a different starting goalkeeper at the beginning of every season. No goalkeeper had lasted a full season as the #1, and none of the players who shuffled through the door made a truly positive impression. In the dog days of summer 2021, though, that seemingly changed.

Gaga Slonina was first signed at 14 ahead of 2019, the final year of the Nelson/Pauno era, to fend off European interest. For two-and-a-half years, he sat in reserve, patiently awaiting an opportunity to step onto the field. On August 4th, 2021, it finally came. Still just 17 years old, Gaga kept a clean sheet on his MLS debut against NYCFC, and when the Fire were out of playoff contention, Wicky handed him the keys for the rest of the season. He started the last 10 matches, keeping interim head coach Frank Klopas’ faith following Wicky’s firing.

After a half-decade of mediocrity at the goalkeeper spot, Gaga was a breath of fresh air. If there truly was a curse left on the position, Gaga broke it. When Ezra Hendrickson took over as head coach in 2022, Slonina won his trust, and started every game from the start of the season without any hesitation. Despite a rocky start, the teenager truly showed his worth and, over the course of the season, emerged as one of the better goalkeepers in the league.

On August 2nd, nearly one year after his debut, the club announced his sale to English giants Chelsea. It took a homegrown kid to finally find a success story in goal for the Fire, but one could argue it was worth the wait once the Academy produced an internationally-recognized talent with indisputable world-class potential.

11. Spencer Richey

Slonina played every minute of the first 32 games of the season, but unfortunately, he would fall just short of iron-man status. A concussion received in training meant he’d miss the final two games, so the backup, Spencer Richey, stepped in against FC Cincinnati on October 1st. An experienced MLS goalkeeper, he was brought in to warm the bench and mentor Gaga. The Fire won 3-2 on that night, which marked Richey’s only appearance of 2022.

Richey started on opening day this season, as well. He had some good moments, but the Fire had to settle for a 1-1 draw with NYCFC. Now, he will return to the bench as Chris Brady claims his place as the #1.

12. Chris Brady

The Fire’s new starting goalkeeper, Chris Brady, is a homegrown product who is the same age as Gaga and is just as talented. He made his debut against the New England Revolution in the final game of the 2022 season, making 4 saves in a convincing performance.

Still only 19, Brady has been definitively named the team’s #1 by Ezra Hendrickson, and he’ll have a chance to show why over the course of this season. Now that the years-long streak of the goalkeeper being a problem position for the Fire has come to an end, anything is possible!