Schaumburg native Chris Mueller retires from professional soccer for health reasons
Chicago Fire forward Chris Mueller, a Schaumburg native, announced his retirement from professional soccer Friday afternoon.
“Goodbyes are never easy,” Mueller wrote in a letter to fans posted on the Fire website. “Especially when you’re waving farewell to a game you’ve centered your life around for the last 20 years. A game that has been everything to you. A game that’s been everything you think about, everything your family and friends know you for, and everything that has given you the feelings of love and validation you’ve depended on when you’ve been in the arena for so long.”
Mueller, 30, joined the Fire in 2022 and started 23 of the 24 matches he played in that season. Overall he appeared in 141 matches for his hometown club. But he played in just five matches for 93 total minutes in 2026 after missing the 2025 season because of pericarditis, inflammation of the thin membrane around the heart.
“After spending the last two years battling back from six-plus flares of recurrent pericarditis — the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the fears and worries of fighting back for weeks and months at a time, trying to regain my fitness and my confidence to get back to my best — I was ultimately, continuously drawn back by ‘another flare,’” Mueller wrote.
Mueller was the sixth overall pick in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft by Orlando City out of the University of Wisconsin, where he was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2017. He also played for Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League before coming home to the Fire. He totaled 27 goals and 34 assists in MLS play between Orlando City and Chicago.
He earned two caps with the U.S. national team, scoring 2 goals with 1 assist.
“Thank you to the Chicago Fire, firstly, for bringing me home and allowing me to play for my childhood club. And secondly, but more importantly, for their support throughout me battling through this diagnosis. Truly, it was unbelievable and I never felt alone in it,” Mueller wrote.
“I’m beyond excited to see where the club continues to head and for the victories that are yet to come. Thank you, Chicago. A supporter, I will always be.”