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Upon signing Poland icon Robert Lewandowski following the expiration of his contract with Barcelona, Chicago Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter expressed his excitement about pairing the 37-year-old up front with Hugo Cuypers, the MLS’ current leading scorer.
Unfortunately for Berhalter and Co., they will never get to see what a Lewandowski/Cuypers partnership could have looked like, with the 29-year-old Belgian on his way out, seemingly out of nowhere.
Recently, Cuypers seemed upbeat about Lewandowski’s impending arrival, saying of his decision to give the Bayern Munich legend his No. 9 jersey, via Tom Bogert, “Robert is one of the greatest No. 9s ever, and it wouldn't look right if he was playing with another number. It was an easy decision for me to give it to him and I really hope we can achieve a lot of things together on the pitch.”
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However, it emerged on Sunday that Cuypers was set to move to CF Monterrey in a deal worth an initial $7.5 million, with a further $500,000 potentially heading Chicago’s way in the form of add-ons, as per The Athletic.
While the deal has yet to be formally announced, personal terms are said to have been agreed, with MLS teams including St. Louis City having also supposedly harbored interest in the forward.
On Monday, Berhalter confirmed that a deal was in place for Cuypers to leave, and it seems the situation caught the team by surprise. “We want to be a club that looks after our players. We want to be a club that is also shrewd with our decision-making,” he said.
“Hugo came to us and expressed a desire to go elsewhere, and for us it was finding good value in that deal. We knew that there's a couple things at play. And by the way, the deal is not finalized yet; it's still being completed. But we have an agreement in principle
“And we think it gives us some flexibility now. For us, it's about now looking to go strengthen the team in other areas, and I think we were excited about trying a 4-4-2; we thought it had potential. Alas, we never get to see it actually on the field; it was good in concept.
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“But in reality, if we have the opportunity to strengthen in other areas, we can perhaps come out on the better end of this. His contract expired in 18 months, he has a one-year option. And for us, it was trying to get value. We paid a big sum for him, and to try to recoup some of those expenses and use those resources to strengthen other areas was our idea.
“And at the same time, helping a player in his wishes. Hugo’s been a great addition to this club. We’re always going to remember his time here. And we move forward.”
Cuypers joined Chicago in February 2024 from Belgian side KAA Gent in a deal worth $12 million, according to ESPN. Since then, he has gone on to score 44 goals in 82 games across all competitions, adding a further six assists. This season alone, Cuypers had found the back of the net on 13 occasions in 11 games - a league best.
After their first post-FIFA World Cup break game against the Vancouver Whitecaps was postponed due to poor air quality, the Fire will finally get the second half of the season going on July 22 against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami at Nu Stadium.
