Who will be the Chicago Fire’s next head coach? 10 Possible Candidates...

As the Chicago Fire’s offseason begins, so does its coaching search. After Ezra Hendrickson was dismissed last May, club legend and longtime assistant Frank Klopas was promoted to the interim job for the third time in his career, but with the season now over, it's time for a fresh start. Klopas said last month that taking over as head coach was “not something [he had] wanted to” do in the Spring, so it’s extremely unlikely he’ll be in the pool of candidates this time. Instead, here are ten possible, realistic names, mostly from within MLS circles, who could emerge as candidates to take over the job.

Chris Armas

An early favorite to take over the job is Armas, who spend the bulk of his playing career in Chicago. The midfielder was a part of the inaugural Fire team in 1998, and has been involved with every major trophy the club has won, namely an MLS Cup, a Supporters Shield, and four U.S. Open Cups.

Unlike the Fire’s last three managers, namely Ezra Hendrickson, Raphaël Wicky, and Veljko Paunović, Armas does have prior head coaching experience in MLS. After being Jesse Marsch’s assistant with the New York Red Bulls for three-and-a-half seasons, Armas took over that job, and won the Supporters Shield in 2018. He was fired in 2020 after a disappointing season in 2019, and an early exit from the MLS is Back Tournament before taking over at Toronto FC, where he lasted only 11 games. In his brief spell in Toronto, Armas won just one of those 11 games, losing eight. Armas was Ralf Ragnick’s assistant coach at Manchester United for a few months in 2021 and 2022, and was an assistant to Marsch at Leeds for a few weeks in 2023.

While Armas, who visited a Fire game in May, speaks quite fondly about his time with the club, his head coaching record is less than ideal. Apart from taking over for Marsch mid-season in 2018, he hasn’t had a truly successful year. In addition, he’s a candidate for other MLS teams, and is reportedly a finalist for the Colorado Rapids vacancy.

Ante Razov

No player has scored more goals in a Fire jersey than Razov, who was already interviewed for the job ahead of the 2022 season. While he was a finalist the year Hendrickson was hired, he could once again enter the pool of candidates this go around. Like Armas, Razov is a Fire original, and between 1998 and 2004, reached three MLS Cups and won three Open Cups.

One of the biggest problems that Hendrickson battled during his tenure with the Fire was his total lack of head coaching experience in MLS. Although Ezra had spent time as an assistant to the great Sigi Schmid in Seattle and Los Angeles as well as to Caleb Porter in Columbus, winning a few trophies along the way, his inexperience in the top job constantly showed once he landed with the Fire. Razov, while a successful assistant at LAFC who helped his team win MLS Cup in 2022, suffers from the same inexperience as Ezra, and the technical staff could choose to stay away for that reason.

There are plenty of counterarguments to that; while Ezra didn’t succeed at making the jump from assistant to head coach right away, that doesn’t mean Razov couldn’t, and his current boss, Steve Cherundolo, won MLS Cup in his first season in the role. In addition, as a club legend, he understands what it means to represent the Fire, especially since he was a key part of the team’s glory days around the turn of the millennium.

Josh Wolff

Yet another manager who was a part of the first Fire teams, Wolff is one of the best young coaches in American soccer. Straight out of college he was a star for the 1998 Fire, earning a starting job and scoring eight goals in his rookie season. Wolff won an MLS Cup and two Open Cups in a Fire shirt as a player.

Following retirement, the former USMNT forward joined Gregg Berhalter’s coaching staff at the Columbus Crew, where together, they reached MLS Cup in 2015. When Berhalter left for the national team job in December 2018, Wolff followed him there, and served as an assistant for two years before being handed the Austin FC job by another ex-USMNT teammate, Claudio Reyna. Under Wolff, Austin reached the Western Conference finals in 2022 after an incredible year that saw them finish second place in the regular season. 2023 was not quite as good as his team missed the playoffs, but that’s not entirely on the coach.

While Wolff is still employed by Austin, it might not be so difficult to tempt him away, considering how last season went for his team. With the Austin experience now under his belt, a new environment may allow Wolff to continue to grow as a coach and potentially solidify himself as one of America’s best.

Adrian Heath

Moving away from former Fire players, Heath is one of a few free agent coaches in MLS who lost their jobs during the previous season but still boast a fairly impressive record. The Englishman was recently let go by Minnesota United this fall, shortly before the end of the regular season.

Heath spent close to six full seasons in Minnesota, as he was the first coach in their MLS history, and only one until he was fired just four weeks ago. Despite having a winning percentage of just 37.1%, Heath did well with his fairly limited resources, and had several highs. In 2019, he took Minnesota to the Open Cup final (losing 2-1) and in 2020, he took them to the brink of reaching MLS Cup (blowing a 2-0 lead and losing 3-2 at Seattle). The Loons reached the playoffs four consecutive years prior to this most recent one, but were eliminated in the first round in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

While Heath would be an experienced hire with MLS coaching experience, he’s won very little in his career. With the resources Chicago would likely present him with, he could be more successful, but it would not be a revolutionary hire.

Gio Savarese

A high-profile hire from within the league would be former Portland Timbers boss Savarese. The ex-Venezuela international was quite successful in the Pacific Northwest throughout his five-year tenure, which came to an end in August as performances dwindled.

Under Savarese, the Timbers enjoyed one of the most successful spells of their young history. They reached two MLS Cups in 2018 and 2021, though both ended in defeats at the hands of Atlanta United and New York City FC respectively. In 2020, Portland won the MLS is Back Tournament and only just came up short in the quarterfinals of the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League against Club América. With a flexible style and plenty of meaningful experience in MLS, Savarese has an impressive résumé within the league.

Should Savarese emerge as a candidate, he would certainly be more proven than any Fire coaches of the last decade. He’s also someone who knows how to win when it matters most, as his Timbers teams’ MLS Cup runs were not necessarily following the best seasons. Savarese will likely also be a candidate for most other MLS teams with coaching vacancies.

Robin Fraser

Another coach in MLS who recently lost their job is Fraser, who was the most successful coach the Colorado Rapids have had in recent history. The ex-U.S. international spent just over four years in the Rocky Mountain State before he was let go in September.

Fraser’s best moment in Colorado came in 2021, when his Rapids team finished in first place in the Western Conference, and second overall in MLS. The regular season triumph would be shortlived, though, as they were dumped out of the playoffs at the first opportunity by Savarese’s Timbers. Fraser reached the postseason in two of his three full seasons, and managed to get goals out of a Rapids team that possessed limited attacking talent and was comprised mostly of misfits from around the league.

Fraser worked with very limited resources in Colorado, and with increased flexibility in shaping his roster, he could easily be more successful in an environment like the Fire. The Rapids’ problems did not come down to Fraser, but rather lack of investment from ownership, and Fraser got the most out of his squad; he has the potential to solidify himself as a top coach in MLS.

Dominic Kinnear

Some have suggested that for soccer to succeed in Chicago, it must pull a “Chivas USA,” but there is one much more extreme example of a franchise being revitalized almost overnight in MLS, and that is in Cincinnati. After several wooden spoon seasons, they are now the best team in MLS, led by Pat Noonan and his chief assistant, Kinnear, who could emerge as a head coaching candidate for elsewhere.

Unlike the other current MLS assistant on the list, Kinnear does have head coaching experience, and he’s even won MLS Cup as the boss… twice. The only problem is that the most recent triumph was 16 years ago when he led the Houston Dynamo to back-to-back championships. His next head coaching job, with the San Jose Earthquakes, did not go as well, and he failed to reach the playoffs in three-and-a-half seasons. Since then, he was an assistant at the L.A. Galaxy before joining Cincy. His team has been the most exciting in MLS, and won the Supporters Shield, the first major trophy in club history, this season.

Though not the flashiest hire, Kinnear could be a clever pull, employing Cincinnati’s own tactics of stealing from the reigning Eastern Conference winner against them. Whether or not he could succeed as a head coach in modern MLS, though, would remain to be seen.

B.J. Callaghan

Between Josh Wolff, Nico Estévez, and Luchi González, it seems like all of Gregg Berhalter’s assistant coaches get picked up by MLS teams. Callaghan, who enjoyed a rapid rise from obscurity after being Berhalter’s fourth-in-command at the 2022 World Cup, could be next.

Callaghan, a former assistant of Jim Curtin in Philadelphia, had no professional playing career and only played as a D3 goalkeeper at Ursinus College. His coaching adventure began as an assistant at Ursinus, followed by assistant roles for St. Joseph’s Women, Villanova women, and eventually the Wildcats’ men’s team as well alongside Curtin. This summer, he was briefly the interim head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, climbing from a complete unknown working in the team’s shadows to a household name when his team dominated Mexico and Canada to win the CONCACAF Nations League in convincing fashion. While helped by the tremendous talent of the current U.S. generation, Callaghan showed an ability to make important decisions and wasn’t afraid to make bold choices tactically and in terms of personnel.

Callaghan seems like a fairly unlikely candidate – he’s probably quite happy with his new role as Berhalter’s top assistant with the USMNT – but is someone who’s shown he is more than competent as a head coach and could have a future with an MLS team, and that may as well be in Chicago.

Bruce Arena

Halloween may have passed, but this is where things start to get a bit spooky. The winningest coach in MLS history and five-time MLS Cup winner Arena is a free agent right now, though he would need written approval from commissioner Don Garber in order to return to the league following a mysterious investigation into his conduct whilst coach of the New England Revolution.

Arena needs no introduction; he has been coaching in MLS since the inaugural season in 1996 and led the league’s first and greatest dynasty, D.C. United, to Cups in 1996 and 1997. He also managed MLS’ other great dynasty, the L.A. Galaxy, as they won three Cups in four seasons in 2011, 2012, and 2014. Arena took the USMNT to the World Cup quarterfinals, won three CONCACAF Gold Cups, a CONCACAF Champions Cup, and has been named MLS Coach of the Year four times. His failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and New England investigation are the two blips on his résumé.

This, too, seems unlikely. Arena would be a quite controversial hire given all the drama that has surrounded the end of his time with the Revolution, and he’s not known as the most non-confrontational of coaches. In addition, Arena seems quite keen on the vacant D.C. United job. He’s an option, nonetheless.

Jesse Marsch

Most fans’ dream hire that is just about within the realm of possibility is Marsch, arguably the best and most accomplished American coach today. Marsch was also a member of the original 1998 Fire team and spent seven years at the club, making 200 appearances whilst winning an MLS Cup, a Supporters Shield, and three Open Cups.

Marsch was previously Bob Bradley’s assistant with the USMNT, Frank Klopas’ predecessor in Montréal, and a Supporters Shield winner in New York before he decided to test himself overseas. He was Ralf Ragnick’s assistant in Leipzig before finding success at Red Bull Salzburg, earning him a shot at Leeds United, which was not quite as rosy. This Spring, he missed out on the USMNT head coaching vacancy, a surprising turn of events considering he was seen as the clear frontrunner throughout the whole process, and proceeded to quietly take a step back and a break away from soccer. He’s been a free agent ever since he was let go by Leeds in February.

The situation here is that Marsch doesn’t need the Fire. His reputation should be enough to earn him another European job (both Southampton and Leicester were keen on bringing him in last season, but he rejected both), and he would need to be sold on the Fire project. After his USMNT disappointment in the Spring, it may be worthwhile for him to make a Chicago homecoming and build a top team in MLS with the support of Joe Mansueto’s near-unlimited resources. If ownership wants to make a big-name splash hire that’s within the realm of possibility, even if it might be a little more expensive, Marsch is the man the club should go out and get.