Chicago Fire FC Announces 2025 Team Award Winners
MLS Chicago Fire FC

Chicago Fire FC Announces 2025 Team Award Winners

Published on November 25, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Chicago Fire FC News Release


CHICAGO - Chicago Fire FC today announced the Club's 2025 Team Award winners, presented by Torres Omar, naming Philip Zinckernagel as the Most Valuable Player and Jack Elliott as the Defensive Player of the Year. Designated Player Hugo Cuypers earned Golden Boot honors for the second consecutive year after scoring a team-high 17 goals during the MLS regular season.

"Our 2025 season has certainly been one of growth for the Club in many areas and each of these players is an example of how we are approaching our on-field and off-field performance," said Chicago Fire FC Director of Football and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. "Each of these players brings intensity, diligence and a competitive driving to every training session and every game and we are happy to celebrate their success in 2025 and excited to see what they do in 2026."

Most Valuable Player: Zinckernagel, 30, joined the Fire at the beginning of 2025 from Club Brugge in Belgium. The Danish winger quickly established himself as a stalwart, playing in 32 regular season matches (31 starts) and becoming the first player in Chicago Fire history to register a double-double to end the year with 15 goals and 15 assists.

Zinckernagel's record-setting season also included goal contributions in 10 consecutive matches, tying the MLS record set by Josef Martinez. Zinckernagel was also selected to the 2025 MLS All-Star Roster by All-Star head coach Nico Estévez, making him the Club's first All-Star since forward Kei Kamara was named a Commissioner's Pick in 2023. He went on to assist Brian White's goal in the 80th minute to become the first Fire player to record an assistant in the All-Star game since Cuauhtémoc Blanco did so in 2008.

Golden Boot: Cuypers, 28, finished the 2025 MLS regular season with 17 goals, scoring double digits for the second time in his two years with the Men in Red. The Belgian forward also registered three assists for a total of 20 goal contributions in his sophomore MLS season. Cuypers joins Robert Berić (2020, 2021), Nemanja Nikolić (2018, 2017), David Accam (2016, 2015) and Ante Razov (2003, 2002) as back-to-back Chicago Fire Golden Boot winners.

Cuypers scored in consecutive matches on three occasions during the 2025 season, with the longest streak coming at the beginning of the year when he scored twice in the Club's opening match against the Columbus Crew, followed by one goal in each match against FC Dallas on March 8, Toronto FC on March 15 and Vancouver Whitecaps FC on March 22. Cuypers also tallied one goal in consecutive matches against FC Cincinnati on April 19 and Nashville SC on April 26; and against CF Montréal on July 19 and New York Red Bulls on July 26.

Defensive Player of the Year: Elliott, 30, joined Chicago as a free agent in December 2025 from the Philadelphia Union. The English defender became a fixture in the Chicago Fire backline, wearing the captain's armband and starting all 33 MLS regular season matches in which he featured. Elliott led the team in minutes played with 2,939 and also registered four goals and three assists as a defender.

As captain, Elliott led the team by example, being both a force on defense and in the attack. Elliott memorably spurred the Fire to a comeback draw in the team's first match of the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs Best-of-3 series against his former side, scoring the tying goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time to send the match into a penalty shootout.

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