Philip Zinckernagel emerges as Chicago Fire centerpiece | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

Soccer led Philip Zinckernagel on a winding wander across Europe, from world cities like London, Athens and Bruges to the less-traveled locales of Helsingør, in the Danish hinterlands, and Glimt, a Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, line items on a lengthy résumé bedecked with upwards of a dozen professional clubs.

Chicago Fire FC supporters can take heart from the fact that the Second City more than holds its own against the Copenhagen native’s past destinations.

“I love it. My wife is happy, got a small dog who loves it, weather's been much better than expected,” Zinckernagel explained to MLSsoccer.com in a conversation during MLS All-Star week in Austin last month. “Chicago's just an amazing city. We got the lakefront, you got the food scene, the coffee; you basically have everything.

“I like to go out and enjoy restaurants, see the city and explore. My wife does the same. So not a typical suburban type,” added the 30-year-old winger. “For me, it's just exciting to be inside of the city, with all the skyscrapers, trying to take it all in.”

Promising beginnings

Pair that attitude with head-turning productivity during his first season in MLS – with 10 league matches remaining, Zinckernagel has already bagged 10 goals and 10 assists, the first player in the Fire’s 27-year history to reach that milestone – and you have a dream signing for the Fire, a sleeping giant on the shores of Lake Michigan finally, perhaps, beginning to rouse itself.

As the 2025 campaign enters its final sprint this weekend following a brief pause for Leagues Cup 2025, the Men in Red sit – albeit narrowly – above the Eastern Conference’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line with a winning record, on course to end a painful eight-year postseason drought in Gregg Berhalter’s first season in charge.

Their final sprint for the postseason begins at SeatGeek Stadium on Saturday night, with a visit from LAFC (8:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). Amid all the hype around the Angelenos’ new global superstar recruit Son Heung-min, don’t be surprised if a handsome bearded fellow in red steals the spotlight.

“I think I’m just in a good moment in my career,” said Zinckernagel, a highly-rated prospect in his youth who had to roam before hitting his stride. “I’m at a club that believes in me and enjoying myself, and the playing style fits me and I have good teammates. The league is pretty open, so it's good fun for offensive players.

“Obviously a little bit different from what I'm used to, but some similarities with the Championship, with games being very open, back and forth,” he added, comparing MLS to the English second division, where he helped both Watford and Nottingham Forest earn promotion to the Premier League earlier in his career.

High-powered attack

He’s a major reason Chicago have proven surprisingly potent in their early stages of BerhalterBall, a popular shorthand for the former US men’s national team coach’s expansive, assertive game model.

With Zinckernagel and fellow newcomer Jonathan Bamba flanking club-record signing Hugo Cuypers, aided by homegrown playmaker Brian Gutiérrez and flying fullback Andrew Gutman, the Fire have scored the fifth-most goals in MLS (45). Many of them have been quite beautifully constructed, like the fluid 22-pass buildup involving all 11 players on the pitch before Zinckernagel’s finish in a 4-1 disassembling of Charlotte FC in May.

“Playing with Hugo, Bamba, it's quality; makes my game easier,” said Zinckernagel. “Just the playing style too, with what Gregg has brought in, I think he's been spot on with the player profiles we have, and what he brought in also. And they're still looking to get some players, so it’s exciting.”

His All-Star nod carried extra weight for the Fire, a proud organization fallen on a decade of sustained struggles. When Zinckernagel notched an assist on the MLS side’s third tally in a 3-1 win over their LIGA MX counterparts, it marked the first goal contribution in an All-Star Game for a Chicago player since Cuauhtémoc Blanco in 2008.

“He’s one of the craftiest guys I've played with. Even in training, you really never know what's going to happen,” Chicago’s homegrown goalkeeper Chris Brady, who was four years old in ‘08, said of Zinckernagel in a recent appearance on MLS 360. “Every time he's got the ball, something magical is about to happen, and he's got a really good understanding for where the ball needs to go and where he needs to be, especially to get himself in the right positions for other players.

“He's very tactically minded, very smart – him and Gregg are always chit-chatting about what the game might need. Just a really smart player overall.”

Playing under Berhalter

Berhalter was a key element in Zinckernagel’s decision to embark on a North American adventure, and Chicago’s head coach and sporting director has made a strong impression on the former Denmark youth international, in terms of personality as well as methodology.

“I would say it is definitely different from what I've had before,” said Zinckernagel. “I haven't played with a coach that's that demanding and detail-oriented, but still really close to the players and socially good, taking care of the players. That's usually like a hard kind of a balance to have as a coach. But he's doing really, really well there.

“It’s all about possession and high pressure and scoring goals, which is something I like.”

Berhalter’s vision and meticulousness lead ‘Zinck’ to compare him to his former boss Kjetil Knutsen, the cult-hero manager who’s fashioned Bodø/Glimt into a European success story, winning four consecutive Norwegian Eliteserien championships while routinely troubling far bigger opponents in UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League action.

Both men are committed to their playing style, “demanding, and like, really just into football,” he explained.

“It's patterns, it's pressures, it's distances between the players. It's small details that make a lot of difference,” explained Zinckernagel. “And we have a lot of video, like tactical training, with just focusing on some small parts that might seem odd from outside, but it's really important for the group to understand these small details.

“In the end, it's to become better and get the players to understand the concepts, and really don't even have to think when they're on the pitch, just go out there and play loose.”

Future building block

The respect appears to be mutual.

“Really dangerous attacking player, and when we acquired him, we knew, I think, that he had a really good skill set, but we didn't know his makeup so much,” Berhalter said of his Danish winger earlier this summer. “I talked to a number of coaches that coached him before, but when you work with him, you realize how special he is and how focused he is. And he wants to win, and he gets results, he gets points, he gets goals and assists.”

Zinckernagel also notes the influence of another leading architect of the Fire’s bid to regain consistent competitiveness and national relevance: owner Joe Mansueto. The Chicago native is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the club, from their 2020 move back to Soldier Field to the bankrolling of a cutting-edge new training facility, a litany of pricey signings and a gorgeous new riverside stadium planned for The 78 development just south of downtown.

Slated to debut in 2028, the Fire’s future home is projected to cost $650 million, none of it coming from public coffers. Zinckernagel makes clear it’s about more than just dollars, though, and that’s a big factor in the sense of pride and possibility he’s already feeling in the Windy City.

“It's a good future for the club with all these new projects, and Joe being an amazing owner and putting a lot of money into the project and just being dedicated to bringing Chicago closer, which is something you definitely can feel,” he said. “He's just also around, and cares about the club and the players, which is cool.

“It's not always like that,” he continued. “It just feels like the club is going in the right direction. It's a really great environment. And, yeah, the vibe is really good here.”

WATCH: Olimpico! Philip Zinckernagel with a MUST-SEE goal