This week the Chicago Fire announced the acquisition of German legend Bastian Schweinsteiger. Even though the Fire had brought in other midfielders this offseason, the move made sense. Schweinsteiger, who starred for almost 15 years for Bayern Munich, has won the World Cup, the Champions League and eight Bundesliga titles.
That Chicago snapped up the 32-year-old, without having to pay a transfer fee to Manchester United, Schweinsteiger's current team, seemed like something of a coup. That the move was met with widespread derision says more about the people heaping scorn on the move than it does about Schweinsteiger.
Major League Soccer carries a stigma as a "retirement league," a destination for veteran players to fade away on a string of overly large paychecks. For most European commentators, MLS is little more than an English-speaking Chinese Super League — plenty of money, without much quality on the field.
The arrival of big-name European players tends to be an uncomfortable reminder to MLS fans that the critics have a point. Should those players succeed, it makes it far worse. That's doubly true if a not-so-big-name player, like Bradley Wright-Phillips or Sebastian Giovinco, comes to America and dominates.
Many fans coming out against this move pointed out that Chicago already has two new central midfielders in Dax McCarty and Juninho. Schweinsteiger hasn't exactly been a star the past few years, but it's hard to argue that the two incumbents are so good that the Fire can't find a spot for him. Schweinsteiger was once one of the best midfielders in the world. Even if he's past his peak, his ceiling is higher than either of the other two.
In some ways, Chicago is the perfect destination for the German star. Schweinsteiger has never shied from a challenge, not even when Jose Mourinho arrived as manager at Manchester United this season and tried to humiliate Schweinsteiger into leaving of his own accord. Assigned to train with the youth team and repeatedly abused by Mourinho, Schweinsteiger carried himself with such dignity and worked so hard that eventually Mourinho had to give up and bring him back into the first-team fold.
That all might serve as good training for going to Chicago, where the Fire has been among the worst MLS teams for years, failing to dent either the upper echelon of the standings or the consciousness of most local sports fans.
It's tempting for some fans to believe that MLS has gotten so good that Schweinsteiger might not be able to keep up. That opinion feels based more in hope than in reality. Adding a player of his caliber probably will not only be an on-field plus for the Fire; it could help revive one of the league's most moribund franchises, a formerly successful team in a major market that has become a laughingstock. Agendas aside, having Schweinsteiger in Chicago is a positive for MLS.
