CHICAGO (Oct. 25, 2022) – Chicago Fire FC today announced that Homegrown goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina was called to the U.S. Men’s National Team for a series of fitness workouts from Oct. 25-Nov. 5 in Dallas, Texas.
Slonina will head to Dallas for fitness workouts that are being held in the lead-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar for MLS-based players who are in contention for the U.S. Men’s National Team World Cup roster and no longer in league competition. Players will continue to be added as their seasons are completed.
It will be the third call up for Slonina, who joined the team for training camp before the USMNT’s FIFA World Cup qualifying matches in January and February 2022. He earned his first call up to the senior USMNT in December 2021, when he joined the team ahead of the friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to being called to the senior USMNT, Slonina had represented the U.S. Youth National Teams at the U-14, U-17 and U-20 level.
The 18-year-old Chicagoland native, who played with Addison United before joining the Fire at age 11, recently made Club history when he became the Fire’s most expensive outgoing transfer, signing with Chelsea FC on Aug. 2. As part of the Club-record, multi-million-dollar transfer, Slonina concluded the 2022 MLS season with the Fire, playing a career-high 32 matches in 2022 (32 starts) and registering the third-most clean sheets in the League (12).
Slonina became the youngest goalkeeper in MLS history to start a match and earn a shutout when he made his professional debut with the Fire against New York City FC on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 at Soldier Field. The young goalkeeper became the 13th Homegrown player to sign with the Chicago Fire on March 8, 2019 after spending three seasons with the Chicago Fire Academy.
