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It's been two long months since the league went on hiatus for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but Major League Soccer is back — and it is, in many ways, more eye-catching than ever.
Several global superstars have joined the league during its hiatus, from French forward Antoine Griezmann to Brazilian midfielder Casemiro.
The biggest deal, though, came out of the Midwest at the start of MLS' World Cup break. Robert Lewandowski — the Polish striker with over 700 goals to his name across his 20-year career — announced he'd be joining the Chicago Fire from Barcelona on a Designated Player contract.
Lewandowski is easily the biggest name to join MLS since his former Bayern Munich teammate Thomas Muller arrived last season, and he will be a massive draw for Chicago's hometown fans.
Lewandowski looks to be arriving at the right time. Chicago is third in the Eastern Conference and sixth in the league overall, and it boasts several up-and-coming internationals like USMNT goalkeeper Chris Brady and South Africa defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi. Lewandowski's arrival to this team should be purely positive — but the huffy last-minute departure of Chicago's top goalscorer points to the serious risks lurking just under the surface of his transfer.
A league leader departs
Belgian striker Hugo Cuypers isn't the biggest name in MLS, but he is one of the league's most productive goalscorers. He leads the 2026 Golden Boot race with 13 goals from 11 appearances.
He's one of just three players in MLS history to score in 10 consecutive league appearances, and that achievement puts him next to former MVP winners Landon Donovan, Josef Martinez and Carlos Vela in the history books. He earned a spot in the starting 11 of the 2026 MLS All-Star Game between Lionel Messi and Son Heung-min. He's untouchable.
"In theory, I think he should be able to keep it up forever," Chicago coach Gregg Berhalter joked of Cuypers' form.
We'll never know for sure. While the rest of the country was distracted by the World Cup, Cuypers requested a midseason transfer away from Chicago, ostensibly because of Lewandowski's imminent arrival.
Cuypers won't win the Golden Boot this season, he won't add to his consecutive goalscoring record and he certainly won't appear in the 2026 MLS All-Star Game, either, because he's set to join Liga MX's Monterrey for a figure close to $7.5 million instead.
A man-management failure?
It's easy to see why Cuypers took one look at Lewandowski and got spooked. The man is a legendary striker, one who made the UEFA Champions League best 11 on four separate occasions. If Cuypers wanted to be the biggest goalscoring star in Chicago, Lewandowski's arrival would've understandably pushed him over the edge.
But if Cuypers wanted to partner with a legend, improve his own game and extend his league-destroying form — and potentially earn a bigger, better transfer in the future — then he probably should've stayed on for another six months and played alongside Lewandowski instead. Curiously, Cuypers chose the nuclear option over the logical one.
Is coach Berhalter to blame? Potentially. There's no reason why Chicago, or any team for that matter, can't play with two strikers at once. There's no reason why Cuypers and Lewandowski couldn't have teamed up and grown together as Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-min did in Los Angeles. If Berhalter put both of those options on the table and still couldn't convince Cuypers to stay, then that's worrying; if he didn't communicate one or both to Cuypers, that's more worrying still.
There is one other explanation here: Berhalter supported Cuypers' exit to free up precious cap space within Chicago's roster. If that's the case, then Berhalter is taking a big — and potentially unnecessary — risk here. His on-field machine was humming before the World Cup break. If he compromised its integrity in service of Lewandowski's star power, he and the Chicago faithful might be in for a disappointing and precipitous fall down the Eastern Conference table.
Miami is the first challenge in front of Berhalter, Lewandowski and Chicago as a whole, and it's a big one. The Herons will likely be rotated due to Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul's antics in the World Cup final, but they are still defending champions, and they will take the game to Chicago without question. This is the chance for the new-look, star-powered Chicago to prove that it can hang with MLS' deepest rosters ... and maybe even surpass them.
Inter Miami will host the Chicago Fire on Wednesday.
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