Robert Lewandowski, the captain of Poland’s national men’s football team and one of the country’s biggest sports stars, has joined US Major League Soccer (MLS) club Chicago Fire.

“We have signed [a] global soccer icon,” declared Chicago Fire in an announcement on social media, confirming earlier unofficial reports that Lewandowski, who has just left Barcelona after his contract expired, would be moving to the MLS.

The decision to continue his career in Chicago has particular significance because the city and its surroundings are home to one of the largest Polish diaspora communities in the world.

Lewandowski has over the last two decades become one of Europe’s most feared strikers, scoring at an incredible rate during his time in Poland, Germany and Spain, with 629 goals across 869 professional matches. He has also scored 89 goals in 167 appearances for the Polish national team.

At the age of 37, Lewandowski is towards the tail end of his career. However, he still grabbed 14 goals in 31 league appearances for Barcelona last season as they won the La Liga title.

Lewandowski is also a two-time winner of the Best FIFA Men’s Player award, which he received in 2020 and 2021.

Chicago Fire’s director of football and head coach, Gregg Berhalter, said Lewandowski’s arrival “raises the standards for the club to heights worthy of this city”.

MLS notes that the player has signed a contract through to the end of the 2027-28 season. As Lewandowski’s Barcelona contract had expired, he moves as a free agent, meaning no transfer fee was paid to sign him.

The terms of Lewandowski’s contract have not been announced, but MLS revealed that he is one of Chicago Fire’s “designated players”, meaning his wages are exempted from the team’s normal salary cap. The system is used to pay high salaries to star players, such as Lionel Messi at Inter Miami.

Lewandowski’s move is a dream come true for many fans in Chicago. The city’s metropolitan area is home to around 700,000 people declaring Polish descent, according to US census estimates. That makes it one of the largest concentrations of Poles outside of Poland itself.

Poles began migrating to Chicago in the 1830s, with many early arrivals being refugees fleeing political upheaval following the partitions of Poland. Later, others arrived as workers, drawn by Chicago’s rapid industrial growth and demand for labour.

Over time, they formed neighbourhoods and built strong community institutions in the city, including Catholic parishes. They also opened businesses such as shops and restaurants offering Polish food. Chicago today hosts various festivals and exhibitions celebrating the city’s Polish heritage.

Born in Warsaw, Lewandowski started out at clubs in Poland’s capital before moving to Lech Poznań. However, it was while playing for Borussia Dortmund in Germany’s Bundesliga that his career took off, earning him a move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs, Bayern Munich, in 2014.

During 12 seasons in Germany, Lewandowski won Europe’s premier club trophy, the Champions League, 10 league titles, and was the Bundesliga’s top scorer a record-equalling seven times.

In the 2020-21 season, he scored a record 41 goals in the Bundesliga. In 2020, he was widely tipped to win the Ballon d’Or, a prestigious award given to the world’s best player during the previous season, but it was not awarded due to the pandemic. The following season, Lewandowski was runner-up to Messi.

Subsequently, in four seasons at Barcelona, Lewandowski won La Liga three times and the Copa del Rey once, scoring 120 goals in 193 games.

Lewandowski’s 167 appearances for the Polish national team across 18 years is a record. He has represented the country in five major tournaments, including two World Cups.

However, last year he became embroiled in controversy when, after national team coach Michał Probierz named another player, Piotr Zieliński, as captain, Lewandowski announced that he would not play for Poland while Probierz was manager.

Shortly afterwards, Probierz resigned and Lewandowski then returned as captain under new coach Jan Urban. However, Poland failed to qualify for the current World Cup being hosted in the US, Mexico and Canada.

Chicago Fire finished eighth in last season’s MLS Eastern Conference before being defeated by Philadelphia Union in round one of the MLS Cup playoffs. Their only MLS title came in 1998.

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