MLS Salary Data: Chicago Fire Up to Fifth-Highest Spenders in League

In a biannual tradition, the MLS Players Association has released the base and total guaranteed compensation for every player contract in the league. According to their data, the Fire have the fifth highest wage bill in MLS, up from seventh over the summer.

While release in June gave a wealth of new information on the Fire’s spending, giving insight for the first time into the contracts given to new arrivals like Jonathan Bamba, Philip Zinckernagel and Djé D’Avilla, the fall arrival comes with comparatively few updates.

The Fire’s total spending increased by just over $1 million since that update, as the Fire brought on André Franco, Victor Radojević, who has yet to feature for the Fire and Joel Waterman, while shedding Carlos Terán’s wages after sending him to Brazil.

The Fire’s move up in the rankings comes partly due to that increased spend but also because teams ahead of them shed payroll: the Los Angeles Galaxy’s spending fell slightly, as they dropped from fifth to eighth. Toronto FC, meanwhile, cleared house: Their total wage bill fell from over $34 million, good for second in the league behind Inter Miami, down $13.7 million, 27th place in the 30 team league.

Toronto’s shedding of contracts was a much more severe version of the diet that the Fire’s roster went on last year, when it was announced that Georg Heitz would be leaving the club. In the summer of 2024, the Fire’s spending was 3rd in the league, before falling significantly with the departure of Xherdan Shaqiri.

As was the case in previous releases, although the wage data gives some insight into the Fire’s salary cap position, it is an incomplete picture: The salary cap includes not just wages and guaranteed bonuses, which are reflected in the MLSPA’s numbers, but also acquisition costs, including transfer fees. Those costs can sometimes dwarf player wages, particularly for young players.

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In addition to the salaries of new arrivals, the Fire also used MLS salary cap rules to their advantage, increasing the guaranteed compensation, but not the base wages, of goalkeeper Chris Brady and midfielder Mauricio Pineda, likely by offering them signing bonuses that hit the cap this year ahead of new deals starting next year.

Notably, the wages from those new deals, and the extensions announced for Jonathan Dean, Jeff Gal and Chris Mueller are not included in this release, so their new salaries for the team will not be public until the MLS Players Association’s next release next spring.

Radojević is slated to make $307,000 on an annual basis. Waterman’s salary, which was known from his time in Montréal since he arrived via trade and did not sign a new deal, remains at $555,400. André Franco, meanwhile, whose play helped propel the Fire into the playoffs before tearing his ACL against Inter Miami last month, is slated to earn $697,063 on an annual basis.

Considering the Portuguese player’s impact on the pitch in his short time playing with the team, that makes him a tremendous value. HIs wages put him 32nd out of 58 players listed as attacking midfielders by the MLSPA, significantly behind players who have had a similar – or even lesser – impact on their team’s fortunes when in the lineup.

Franco’s relatively low wages for his impact, combined with an affordable purchase option that would enable the Fire to keep him without using a precious Designated Player tag on him will present a conundrum for Gregg Berhalter and his staff: They could keep Franco, knowing that he will not be available for much of – or any of – the Fire’s 2026 campaign, or return him to FC Porto, and avoiding having to roster a player and cover his cap hit (or use the team’s one Season Ending Injury Tag).

That, however, is a problem for the future, with the Chicago Fire still competing in the playoffs. The team has a must-win Game 2 of their first round series against the Philadelphia Union coming up this Saturday.