CHICAGO, IL–On Monday, Chicago Fire FC formally introduced Ezra Hendrickson as their tenth head coach. Hendrickson has won 15 trophies in Major League Soccer both as a player and a coach and will take the reins of a team that has not won a trophy since 2006, but sees a lot of potential with the Fire.
“Well, when I look around the Club and see the people who are in charge of changing the course of this Club, I was very encouraged,” said Hendrickson. “I think they have very good soccer minds, who knows the league, who knows what type of players are going to be successful in this league.
“When I came in and spoke in my interview process, I told them about my philosophy, my style of play and the type of players that, you know, I would be looking to work with and to bring into the Club. They were in alignment with those things, and so I think there’s a bright future for the Club.Like I said, the core group of players, when you look at Chicago, a lot of people talk about the Philly’s and Dallas when they talk about homegrowns and having very good young players.
“But I think this Club is right up there with those clubs as far as that pathway of homegrown players coming through the first team. So that was very attractive for me.I just see a lot of potential. It’s an opportunity that I wanted to take, andyou know, go forward with. But like I said, you know, having an owner like Joe (Mansueto) that’s invested so much and is willing to invest so much is also a big factor, because if you don’t have that backing, then it becomes difficult.”
Getting those types of players have been a challenge for over a decade for the Fire. One type the Hendrickson hopes to bring in with Sporting Director Georg Heitz is someone who can provide leadership to the club’s younger players.
“Well, first, I want to say, I’m going to repeat that we have a lot of good, young talent. But sometimes you need leadership and you need someone to kind of help bring in those players along. Sort of an extension of the coaching staff, because as a coach or as a coaching staff, you don’t really sometimes have all that it takes to help with young players.
“I think maybe that some leadership, some issues that might need fixing as far as in the locker room. But like I said, we are working right now currently to bring some guys in to help nurture these young players in, and then we have guys like (Jonathan) Bornstein here who are great leaders who we are going to look help bring along the young talent.”
With a potential rebuild on the horizon for the Fire for 2022, “growing pains” was an operative term. Indeed, Hendrickson understands that the Fire need to win to draw fans to Soldier Field and attention in the sporting landscape of the city. According to Heitz, one sign of success is making the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“I feel like every year I say the same thing,’’ said Heitz. ‘‘But, of course, we want to make the playoffs. Because otherwise we do not even need to start training in January. We want to make the playoffs.”
Hendrickson quoted one of his mentors in former Galaxy, Crew, and Sounders coach Sigi Schmid in that ‘wherever you go, fill the trophy case.’ He has also been an assistant for two other championship coaches in Brian Schmetzer and Caleb Porter.
“I spent most of my years as a player or an assistant coach with Sigi Schmid and I worked for Brian Schmetzer, and most recently Caleb Porter, and these are guys who have been very successful and wonchampionships in the League and been leaders of very successful clubs.I’ll take a lot from each one of them but at the end of the day, it’s going to be what I’ve learned compounded with what I bring to the table as far as a coach and my style and my philosophy that’s going to lead this team going forward.”
Amanda Cortese supplies the photos from Monday’s press conference:
Chicago Fire
Eastern Conference
