The biggest goal for the Chicago Fire this offseason was to find their linchpin, a star player who can bring about change on the pitch and garner attention off of it.
The Fire have that in attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, whom they formally introduced Monday during a news conference in a ballroom at the Blackstone hotel.
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Now the goal is to bring to life Shaqiri’s vision for what he wants to accomplish in Major League Soccer.
“I’m really, really looking forward to working with this club, to bring the glory back to Chicago,” the Swiss international said. “Maybe the last few years (it) was not here.
“I want to bring that back and try to be successful with this team, to help this team, which is also very young. My goal is clear: I want trophies. I want to go to the playoffs.”
The Fire signed Shaqiri earlier this month from French Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais, spending a club-record $7.5 million fee to acquire their new No. 10 and making him one of the highest-paid players in MLS.
It was a splashy move for a player who has played for some of the most prestigious clubs in the world — and won some of Europe’s biggest honors.
But Shaqiri isn’t the only significant signing the Fire pulled off this offseason. They also signed Mexican winger Jairo Torres, Polish striker Kacper Przybylko and German center back Rafael Czichos, all in an effort to help the club reach the postseason for the first time since 2017.
It was that effort — what Shaqiri called a “big project” — that sold him on the move.
“I wanted a new thing to try, and so the opportunity came to come to the U.S. and to come to this club to help bring the glory back,” Shaqiri said. “This is my most important thing. I want to be successful. I want to bring to this club new goals and to be successful.”
It didn’t hurt that Fire sporting director Georg Heitz and Shaqiri have a relationship dating to Shaqiri’s time as a youth player for FC Basel, where Heitz previously served in a similar role.
“It’s always difficult with any player,” Heitz said of the process to sign Shaqiri. “My former president in Basel once said, ‘If it’s easy, the player is not good.’ So it was of course not easy, but it was always correct.
“But the most important thing is that the player knows what he wants, and Xherdan made it very clear what he wanted, especially after he had spoken to (coach) Ezra (Hendrickson). And I think this was the most important step during the negotiations.”
Shaqiri said he’s fit and ready to play in Saturday’s season opener against Inter Miami CF in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (5 p.m., WGN-9).
Ultimately that decision rests with Hendrickson, but if Hendrickson is to be taken at his word, expect Shaqiri to be at the heart of everything the Fire do this season.
“One of the reasons why we wanted Shaq here is we want to play with the ball a lot,” Hendrickson said. “We want to have possession of the ball a lot, and I think someone like him will help us not only maintain possession, but also he has that quality to make those penetrating passes that we know Przybylko can get on the end of. And there are some wingers that can be beneficial to his style of play.
“He fits the way we want to play. We need to get him the ball and basically take over the game for us. Players are going to be instructed to find him because he’s a very integral part of what we are going to do and how we are going to play.”
The Fire have bet big on Shaqiri, who at 30 is more than capable of still playing in Europe’s top leagues.
But the Fire’s new star player wants to make one thing clear.
“I came here not for holidays,” Shaqiri said. “I came to work for this club and to be successful. So I really want first to win something, and then I can enjoy the city.”
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