Swiss international and former Liverpool player Xherdan Shaqiri (30) is set to join Chicago Fire in the MLS for a fee of €7 million.
While this came as a surprise, Foot Mercato report that the 30-year-old submitted a request to leave at the start of the transfer window, over a month ago.
The reason behind Shaqiri’s request was the search for more game time, having featured in only 11 Ligue 1 games this season, accumulating just under 700 minutes. In particular, he hopes to remain in the Swiss squad (for whom he already has 100 caps) for the World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year.
Despite having been courted by FC Sion, Shaqiri will join Chicago Fire and its Sporting Director Georg Heitz, who he knew during his time at Basel FC, whose youth teams Shaqiri progressed through.