Chris Brady made Chicago Fire FC history on May 26, 2026, when he was named to the U.S. Men’s National Team roster for FIFA World Cup 2026. The goalkeeper became the first Chicago Fire Homegrown Player and Academy graduate ever selected for a World Cup roster.

Brady called the moment life changing, saying it was hard to put into words and that he felt nervous, excited and thankful. The Fire said he is the fifth player to make a World Cup roster while active with the club and the third active Fire player to be named to the U.S. men’s roster.

For a player who signed his first team contract in March 2020 as a 16-year-old and became the 19th Homegrown Player in club history, the call is the kind of breakthrough Chicago has spent years waiting to see. Brady has since become a steady presence for the Fire, with 115 matches across all competitions, 10,246 minutes, 346 saves and 26 clean sheets. He has started all 106 regular-season matches in which he has played, and his path has run through the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup and the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Brady’s rise had already reached the national stage before this roster. He joined the U.S. team for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, when the Americans advanced to the final, and he helped the country qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games at the Concacaf U-20 Championship in July 2022. He won the Golden Glove there and posted four-straight shutouts in the knockout stage, including the Olympic-clinching semifinal against host Honduras.

The roster announcement also sharpened the stakes around the final build-up to the tournament. The U.S. will play Senegal at 2:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 31, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., then face Germany at 1:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, June 6, at Soldier Field in Chicago. From there, the Americans open Group D against Paraguay at 8 p.m. CT on Friday, June 12, at Los Angeles Stadium in Los Angeles, then meet Australia at 2 p.m. CT on Friday, June 19, in Seattle before closing against Türkiye at 9 p.m. CT on Thursday, June 25, in Los Angeles.

Brady, a Naperville native, now enters that stretch as one of three goalkeepers on the U.S. roster alongside Matt Freese and Matt Turner. For Chicago Fire FC, the significance is bigger than one player making one team: it is the first time a Homegrown and academy product from the club has reached a World Cup roster, and that gives Brady’s selection a place in the Fire’s history that cannot be repeated.