major league soccer I’m back after a six week break for the World Cup.
There have been a number of changes since the league went on hiatus, but the most notable has been the arrival of two high-profile international stars and a new campaign that hopes to benefit from them. world cup To attract new soccer fans to the league.
Robert Lewandowski Participated in Chicago Fire In late June, they signed a deal that will keep the Polish striker at the club until the 2027-28 season.
French forward Antoine Griezmann agrees to terms Orlando City in March However, after finishing the season with Atletico Madrid, he did not join the team until last week.
“I’ve already seen the team grow a lot in the last few months. If you compare this season to last season, it’s also the next step, so I can see they’re doing a great job,” Lewandowski said of joining the Fire. “I hope to help my teammates and my new colleagues, to play better and win more games. And I know that in the end if we all work together we can achieve our goals, and when you start playing for a new club, winning titles is always in front of you.”
Lewandowski, 37, arrived in Chicago from Barcelona and has scored 83 goals in 134 appearances since joining the Spanish club in July 2022. Barcelona won three La Liga titles during his time with the team.
Prior to that, he spent eight years at Bayern Munich, during which the club won the Bundesliga eight times and the Champions League once.
He is Poland’s all-time top scorer with 89 goals. He won the FIFA Best Player Award in 2020 and 2021.
“The important thing is this is a huge deal for our football club,” Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We’re excited to meet Robert and bring him to the club. We’re excited to see how he can change the culture.”
The Fire are playing their second season under Coach Berhalter and are steadily improving. Chicago won just seven games and finished last in the league’s Eastern Conference in 2024. The following year the team finished the regular season in 8th place with more than double the wins and are currently ranked 3rd in the conference table.
Griezmann makes his presence felt
Griezmann, 35, played for the France team that won the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He retired from the national team in 2024, having scored 44 goals in 137 caps.
Griezmann, who is Atlético’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals in two stints at the club, has signed a contract with Orlando until the 2027-28 season, with an option for a further year.
Griezmann made his first appearance with the Lions, recording one goal and one assist in last week’s 6-0 friendly win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL Championship.
“The group was great. The players are very talented and have great personalities,” Griezmann said. “They have welcomed me incredibly well. I already feel like I’m at home.”
MLS looks to make the most of the World Cup
MLS this week launched an ambitious post-World Cup marketing campaign, “Thank the world, we’ll take it from here.”
Although the United States did not advance as far in the tournament as some had expected, MLS commissioner Don Garber on Thursday pointed to the players representing each country who will be in the tournament and playing in the league.
“Our whole team has been preparing for this for eight years, thinking about what kind of product we want to create over the next few years from a fan development standpoint,” Gerber said at an event in New York. “Obviously, there’s been a marketing program and a marketing effort and this whole idea of MLS is back. It’s no coincidence that Robert Lewandowski is coming right after the World Cup. Antoine is coming too. After the World Cup, we’re going to welcome 45 World Cup players back into the stadium and say to the world that if you love the World Cup, come to an MLS game and you’ll love it even more.”
U.S. Soccer Federation President Cindy Perlow Cohn also attended the event in New York, but said she would not discuss the U.S. performance at the World Cup.
Twenty-two of the league’s 30 teams have introduced a ‘First Match On Us’ initiative, offering free tickets to potential fans who have never been to a match.
The league resumed its season Thursday with four games, including a Cascadia Cup rivalry between the visiting Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders. Friday’s biggest matchup is between LAFC and LA Galaxy at El Traffico. The game between the Whitecaps and Fire was expected to be Lewandowski’s debut. Postponed due to poor air quality The outbreak occurred in Chicago due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires.
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AP Sports Writer Ron Bloom in New York contributed to this report.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
