What happened to the 2017 Chicago Fire?
All things considered, it’s been a pretty rough decade for the Chicago Fire. The Men in Red have twice finished dead last in MLS and have rarely been any sort of contender for any trophies. Attendance has often dwindled, and promising names have shuffled through the door but provided little in the way of results.
But for one brief, fleeting moment, it seemed like that was all going to change. During the 2017 regular season, the Fire rolled back the years and were one of the most exciting teams in North America. That summer, Veljko Paunović’s team embarked on an eleven-game unbeaten run and found themselves regularly selling out Bridgeview as the goals rained into opponent nets. It was beautiful.
2017 didn’t end as hoped. Results trailed off in the fall, and the year culminated in a gut-wrenching 4-0 home loss to New York Red Bulls. The regular season success couldn’t be replicated in 2018, and by the end of 2019, that team was almost entirely broken up.
As we enter 2023, that cold Wednesday night in Bridgeview grows more and more distant, but it remains the last time the Fire tasted the postseason. Let’s look back at the members of that great Fire team, their impact, and where they are now.
It is impossible to talk about the 2017 Chicago Fire without its star name immediately coming to mind. Bastian Schweinsteiger arrived in Chicago a few weeks into the season and shocked the world when he signed with the Fire. Famously, he was asked in his introductory press conference whether or not winning the World Cup was a realistic ambition for his Fire team. Unfortunately, Basti was unable to deliver a World Cup title to the city of Chicago, nor any other trophies, but the impact he had on the team in terms of raising the levels of others was massive. Der Fußballgott retired in Chicago following the 2019 season and has since moved on to punditry in his native Germany.
A legend who isn’t talked about enough in Fire folklore is the man who is the club’s second most prolific goalscorer, only trailing the great Ante Razov. Nemanja Nikolić had an instant impact when he joined the Fire at the beginning of 2017, going on to win the MLS Golden Boot that season. The Hungarian international scored 24 goals that year, which was a record for goals in a single season. While he couldn’t quite match his record-breaking tally in his two subsequent seasons in Chicago, he still hit double-digits in 2018 and 2019, and Niko ended his spell with the Fire with the highest goals-per-game ratio in club history. Since returning to his homeland in 2020, Niko has had quite the career. He scored 42 goals across two-and-a-half seasons for Fehérvár in Hungary and returned to his national team in late 2020, making his way onto an international scoresheet against Russia and Bulgaria. Incredibly, he went to his second European Championship in 2021 and played against France and Germany; Niko recently signed for AEK Larnaca, where he scored on his debut, and is now playing European knockout soccer in the Europa Conference League.
Returning stateside, we find a familiar face who still resides in MLS. Dax McCarty was named captain towards the end of the year having arrived from New York Red Bull in preseason. He was a key player in midfield and was one of four All-Stars on the roster. McCarty was traded to Nashville for next to nothing at the end of 2019 and has gone on to be a key figure there for several years. He is now entering his fourth season with Nashville, who are once again looking like a playoff team. Dax is a true MLS legend, and his leadership in the middle of the park was essential throughout his time in Chicago.
And then there’s David Accam. There have been few players in the history of the Fire who have reached the levels Accam did in 2017, and it was a joy to behold. The Ghanaian had the best year of his career and was an MVP contender. During the month of May, Accam scored in five successive matches and terrorized opponents by cutting in from the left wing. After the playoff loss, though, he was traded to the Philadelphia Union and was never the same player again. Accam has failed to score more than four goals in a season since leaving Chicago and has made stops in Columbus, Nashville, Sweden, and Finland. He is now without a club, leaving Finnish club FC Inter Turku this January after making just 10 appearances.
Matt Polster was a crucial player for the Fire in 2017. He was deployed as a makeshift right back for most of the season, and though he has had his fair share of injury struggles during his career, Polster was available for most of that season. It wasn’t meant to be after that, though, and Polster missed all of 2018 with injury. He left for Rangers at the end of the year and would later return to MLS with the New England Revolution in 2020. With the Revs, Polster has won a Supporter’s Shield and has been very successful, helping them set the MLS points record in 2021.
The opposite starting fullback that season was Brandon Vincent. In an alternate universe, Vincent was probably sold to Europe for millions of dollars and was Antonee Robinson’s backup in Qatar for the USMNT. He had great talent, and that made him a key piece for Paunović’s team during his three years at the club. However, before the start of the 2019 season, he promptly retired at 24. The one-time U.S. international returned to Stanford and has found success away from the soccer field. Good for him, not so good for the Fire, who were left without one of their most talented young stars.
Returning to those who are still in soccer, we find the player from that team who is the best today. It was Djordje Mihailovic’s rookie season in 2017, signing a pro contract at the beginning of the year, warding off European interest in him as an 18-year-old. Djordje slowly broke into the team over the course of the season and became a starter just in time for the playoffs to begin. That fateful night in Bridgeview was a nightmare one for the young Mihailovic, as he tore his ACL, but he recovered and became an impactful player for the Fire in 2019 and 2020 before he was traded to Montréal. After two Best XI level seasons and a combined 35 G+A in Québec, he was sold to AZ Alkmaar in Holland this past January, where he is already making an impression. His integration into the USMNT is long overdue.
Just two more players are still around in MLS. Stefan Cleveland hardly ever played for the Fire, and was the fourth string in 2017. He was acquired by the Seattle Sounders ahead of 2020, and has since made 22 MLS appearances as Stefan Frei’s backup. Cleveland has a CONCACAF Champions League winner’s medal and traveled with his team to the FIFA Club World Cup earlier this month. Brandt Bronico was a fan favorite in Chicago, but when Charlotte FC entered the league, he was traded there so that he could return to his home state. He has been successful there and is now beginning his second season in the Queen City. Johan Kappelhof was the last remaining member of the 2017 team to stay with the Fire; he left after 2021 and joined Real Salt Lake on a one-year deal but is now without a club.
A few more of the members of the 2017 team are still playing. João Meira, an excellent defender during his time in Chicago, is now 35 and is still playing for Leixões in the Portuguese Segunda Division. Michael de Leeuw, at 36, is playing for recently-relegated Willem II in the Eerste Divise of Holland, who are battling for promotion back to the top flight. David Arshakyan has had quite the journeyman career since his failed stint in Chicago; he has made stops in Denmark, Croatia, Russia, and Armenia, playing for small clubs in weak leagues and second divisions, and he now turns out for FA Šiauliai, a team recently promoted to the Lithuanian top flight.
The most common fate for the rest of the team, though, is USL. Richard Sánchez is with Hartford Athletic, Jorge Corrales and Collin Fernández are with Tulsa FC, Drew Conner and Christian Dean are with Forward Madison, and Luis Solignac still plays for El Paso Locomotive.
Goalkeeper Jorge Bava played eight games for the Fire that season. He is now retired and is the head coach of Liverpool FC. An Uruguayan team called Liverpool, that is. Juninho, who was on loan from Tijuana, is the coach of LA Galaxy’s U-19s. Michael Harrington is an assistant coach for the University of North Carolina men’s soccer team.
Every other member of the team is also now retired. Matt Lampson won an MLS Cup in Columbus and, since retirement, has continued to run his cancer foundation, LampStrong. Daniel Johnson is now a youth coach in Chicago, while Jonathan Campbell recently graduated with an MBA from the University of Virginia. John Goossens spent time in the Eredivisie following his departure from Chicago in 2018, and post-retirement, he has become a financial advisor for professional soccer players. Patrick Doody had a brief broadcasting career where he was a part of the Fire’s commentary team, but now he is working in software development. Arturo Álvarez won an Open Cup in Houston, then retired and has become a realtor in Texas. Joey Calistri is also in real estate after hanging up the boots in 2019.
To wrap this up, let’s take a look at the technical staff. 2017 was Veljko Paunović’s second year with the Fire, and he would stay on for two more seasons afterward. Pauno’s next move was to Reading, where he found unexpected success in his first season but was sacked midway through his second year after a mass exodus of the team’s young stars. Now, he is the manager of Chivas de Guadalajara, one of the biggest teams in North America. Pauno has Chivas sitting in 3rd place in Liga MX right now, their best start in years.
Pauno’s main assistant, Marko Mitrović, followed him to Reading, and is now finding success as the U.S. U-19 National Team head coach. Goalkeeping coach Aleksandar Sarić is a youth goalkeeping coach (B1 Keeper Academy), and assistant coach Eric Gehrig is no longer coaching in the league. General Manager Nelson Rodríguez was a prominent executive in the MLS front office after leaving the club, but he is no longer listed as such on the MLS website, so what he’s up to now is unclear. The only remaining members of the Fire’s first team staff from 2017 (as listed on the club website at the time) are the equipment managers, Brian Sauer and Juan Arreola, and two members of the medical team, Drs. Joshua Blomgren and Brian Forsythe.
Five-and-a-half years is a very long time in soccer. It feels like it has been forever since the Chicago Fire brought such joy in the way they did in that glorious 2017 summer. But one day, God willing, a beautiful winning team will return to the Windy City, and maybe, just maybe, they can accomplish something more and go a few steps further.
