Hugo Cuypers: Chicago Fire star emerging as Golden Boot contender | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

History tends to hang heavy over Chicago Fire FC.

Of the nearly two dozen expansion clubs to enter MLS since its 1996 launch, the Men in Red remain the only one to win an MLS Cup in their inaugural season. And their subsequent glory years, marked by a 2003 Supporters’ Shield, four US Open Cup titles, consistent competitiveness and a vibrant supporter culture, provide a potent legacy. That’s all made Chicago’s past decade-plus of struggle that much more painful.

So it’s rather striking when star striker Hugo Cuypers reveals first-year boss Gregg Berhalter and his staff rarely even mention all that as they work to turn around a proud organization seeking a path out of the wilderness.

“When we arrived for preseason, I think the standards were pretty high. It felt like a high-performance environment where the past didn't count anymore,” Cuypers revealed to MLSsoccer.com in a one-on-one conversation ahead of the Fire’s visit from mighty Inter Miami at Soldier Field on Sunday night (4:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).

“That's maybe one of his [Berhalter’s] main contributions, is with everything he puts into place. Last year, when I arrived, the conversation was always about, ‘the club has missed the playoffs for five or six years.’ So it was a negative narrative, whereas for all the new players that arrived this year, I haven't heard that sentence once. I haven't heard once, ‘Chicago missed the playoffs for six years,’ because we really were building something new.”

Chicago ascent

So far, so good. With just seven matches played – five of them on the road – the Fire (11 points, 3W-2L-2D) are already more than a third of the way towards their point total from last season, when they finished dead last in the Eastern Conference and only looked truly competitive in fleeting patches. They’ve scored 14 goals, and just as importantly, that matches almost identically to their expected goals total of 13.72, which suggests sustainability in their output.

Cuypers himself is already halfway towards his league scoring total from 2024, with five goals and two assists that put him in the thick of the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race, in a four-way tie for second behind Philadelphia’s Tai Baribo. The sophistication and variety of those finishes, too, has helped remind everyone of the quality that prompted the Fire to spend a club-record amount – a reported $12 million fee – to acquire him from Belgian side Gent in February 2024.

He’s quick to point to the benefits he’s reaping from a more effective collective around him in his second season.

“I think the most important thing, wherever you go, may it be changing leagues or and even more so for continents, it's the team environment you arrive in,” explained the 28-year-old Belgian, who played for nearly a decade in Europe before moving Stateside. “If that is stable and performing well, everything else is much easier. I think there is no secret about it, it wasn't stable enough last year.

“We quickly changed systems, and it was also for me, the first time that I arrived – and I was 27 when I arrived, so it’s the first time in my career I arrived in a club without having a preseason,” he added, noting the circumstances of his trans-Atlantic move were such that he’d barely gotten introduced to his new teammates, let alone versed in tactics and tendencies, before suiting up for opening day last season.

Miami measuring stick

Now he and his teammates are preparing for one of the most stringent measuring sticks on offer in this part of the world: a date with Leo Messi’s star-studded Inter Miami. The Herons are fresh off a dramatic Concacaf Champions Cup triumph over LAFC as they visit for one of the tastiest fixtures on the MLS Matchday 8 docket.

It’s the type of occasion most players would circle on their calendar. It says something about Cuypers’ methodical approach to his craft that he provides a very grounded perspective on this test.

“They are one of the best teams in the league since I arrived, and you always want to measure yourself against a better team,” he said of Miami. “For us as a team as well, it's where are we now after those first couple of weeks with ups and downs already? At home with more people and more attention, are we able to deal with that? Have we taken the right steps, or enough steps already, as early as we are in the season?

“How mature are we now, individually and as a team, to face them? And that's why it's a game for us to look forward to, but not having to change the way we prepare.”

Unique approach

As you might guess from the thoughtfulness of a response like that, Cuypers is a studious type. He’s already obtained a UEFA Certificate in Football Management and works with a striker specialist outside of his club responsibilities, always aiming to hone the finer points of his skill set.

“Hugo is an interesting one. Really is one of the most focused players I've ever seen, I've ever been around,” Berhalter said of Cuypers in a Thursday media availability. “Just laser-focused on getting better, on improving, on taking care of himself, helping the team; tremendous work rate. He's got a lot of really, really special qualities, and it's been interesting to work with him.

“I'm amazed watching him in the penalty box, how he finishes, how he's able to put the ball on target with no time, under a lot of pressure. So to me, there's just a lot of upside with him.”

Berhalter’s possession-oriented principles of play have famously fueled several career seasons for his teams’ strikers over the years, among them Kei Kamara and Gyasi Zardes during his Columbus Crew tenure, and it’s not hard to imagine a similar breakout for Cuypers.

“It's really important in the way he wants to play, to create not only a lot of chances, but a lot of high-quality chances – and then I am the main man on the field you will look at once we create those chances, even if the whole offensive compartment is very quality this year,” said the forward of his new coach’s philosophy.

“His way of playing is pretty clear for us as a team. It's what we needed after a lack of maybe stability or identity last year, that players could fall back into a clear identity. And then it's up to us to to execute it on the pitch. But it surely makes it easier when the guidelines are clear.”

The coach himself, who also serves as Chicago’s director of football, sees ample nuances to explore in his talented No. 9, who came achingly close to moving to one of Europe’s elite leagues before his MLS move, with Gent reportedly declining a hefty offer from Serie A side Bologna two years ago, a few months after he won the golden boot in the Belgian top flight.

“He's different than a lot of the strikers that I've coached before, because it's not really about aerial crosses. It's not about putting the ball in the air with him,” said Berhalter. “It's really more about the finer detail with his movement, smaller movements, getting open in the box, breaking free from opponents on the weak side. He does a lot of things extremely well. But it's been so far a real pleasure to work with him.”

Chicagoland is traditionally known for its large, vibrant Mexican and Polish diaspora communities and their deep influence on the city’s culture. Over the decades that helped guide the Fire towards prominent signings like Peter Nowak, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Jorge Campos and more, a tradition that continues today with the likes of homegrowns Brian Gutiérrez and Chris Brady.

So perhaps it’s symbolic of the Men in Red’s fresh start in 2025 that a distinctly Francophone thread runs through the club’s revival, thanks to the chemistry Cuypers is striking up with new wingers Jonathan Bamba and Philip Zinckernagel as the nexus of the Fire’s attack, even with limited time together.

“I missed all of preseason [due to injury], and as well as Philip and Joe joined during the preseason, so I couldn't create those relationships on the field, but right away off the field we hit it off,” said Cuypers. “Having with Joe a common language in our mother language, which is French, and a lot of common things with Phila, who played a couple of years in Belgium; we both played at [Greek powerhouse] Olympiacos.

“It helps when you have those kind of conversations right from the start. And I mean, the energy they came in with was that positive, that they are really eager to help the club attain our target. So I think the vibe is really positive, and they surely contributed to that.”

Placing roots

Five of Chicago’s 14 goals have involved some combination of that trio. And while the Fire’s three-match streak of away wins last month drew league-wide attention to the Berhalter turnaround, the most notable among them a 3-1 defeat of the West-leading Vancouver Whitecaps, Cuypers’ faith in the process is also fueled by the interplay the attacking trident produced in last week’s setback at the New York Red Bulls.

“I actually had that thought after this weekend, even if unfortunately we lost – that it was really coming together in the way we create chances for the team,” he said. “And I'm speaking for the three of us, even if the whole team is responsible for it, but we are the end product. It was really nice to see Joey [Bamba] score his first goal, and again, the three of us were involved in that goal.

“That's going to be one of our strengths during the course of the season, is that the danger can come from everywhere. And I think the next piece to that is involving even more players from the midfield and our fullbacks. But it's going to take time, it isn’t going to come overnight and one week to the other. But the signs are positive.”

Cuypers is the sort to focus on the long haul. He points to that long postseason drought as an obstacle for the Fire to face further down this road – “we’re still in the process of getting that consistency; there is no point in setting our goals too high right now,” he declared – once they’ve matured as a collective.

The fact that he and his wife Pauline have chosen Chicago as the place to start a family underlines his commitment. They welcomed a son, Nathan, into the world in September, and are settled and content in the Fulton Market neighborhood, not far from the Fire’s brand-new training facility, the Endeavor Health Performance Center.

“We enjoy it, especially right now, when the weather is starting to get a little bit warmer! But overall, we really fell in love with the city. So on that part, we're very lucky,” he revealed.

“We're both from the suburbs in Belgium, but we like that city life a little bit. I think downtown Chicago is a bit too busy for us, and so West Loop is the perfect place to have walkable areas, go for a coffee, and especially now with a newborn, it's really enjoyable to walk around. Daily life is about training and taking care of the family. So no, I'm really, really in a happy place right now.”

Player of the Matchday 24: Hugo Cuypers