Fire expected to send Djordje Mihailovic to Montreal

A source confirmed reports that Mihailovic is expected to be traded to the Montreal Impact for $800,000 in guaranteed allocation money with another $200,000 if he hits performance benchmarks.

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The Fire are expected to trade Djordje Mihailovic to Montreal for allocation money.

Courtesy of the Fire

Djordje Mihailovic still might become a star.

It just won’t happen in Chicago.

A source confirmed reports that Mihailovic, a former Homegrown signing with six caps for the United States men’s national team, is expected to be traded to the Montreal Impact for $800,000 in guaranteed allocation money with another $200,000 if he hits performance benchmarks. The deal has not been made official, and the Fire will also retain 10% of any future sale involving Mihailovic, whose contract was up at the end of the 2021 season.

The Athletic reported that Montreal will be giving Mihailovic a new deal worth over $700,000 per year. In 2019, the last year salary information was made available by the MLS players’ association, Mihailovic earned $114,600 in guaranteed compensation.

A member of the Fire first team since 2017, the 22-year-old Lemont native had two goals and a team-best seven assists in 2020. 

That amount of allocation money coming in creates options for the Fire, who could buy down a Designated Player and subsequently add a high-priced star or get creative with their roster by bringing in new signings and needed upgrades. But at the same time, there’s a sense of “what if” as the talented Mihailovic gets a new beginning in Canada under Montreal coach and legendary former player Thierry Henry, and lingering questions about why the Fire couldn’t push his performance to the next level.

His departure, while not exactly a surprise, represents the end of an up-and-down and perhaps unfulfilling tenure with the Fire for Mihailovic. After a promising rookie year, his 2017 season ended with a torn right ACL suffered during the Fire’s playoff loss to the New York Red Bulls.

The 2018 season saw Mihailovic play nine times for the Fire, and in the winter of 2019 he earned his first senior USMNT appearance and national-team goal. Seemingly primed for a breakthrough, Mihailovic was recorded in a profane incident with Fire fans after their loss in the 2019 US Open Cup, and his progress was halted that season when the Fire signed veteran Nicolas Gaitan to eat into his playing time.

“I kind of learned what professional life is about,” Mihailovic said before the 2020 season. “I’m not always going to see the sunshine and rainbows. I’m going to have to go through tough times, as well, and that’s going to really bring the best out of me and how I react to being put in that situation now.”

Under Raphael Wicky, a coach known for working with young players, Mihailovic was expected to blossom further. And though Mihailovic earned another USMNT appearance and led the Fire in assists, 2020 wasn’t quite what anybody hoped for.

In what Wicky deemed a “technical [and] tactical decision” he needed to discuss internally with Mihailovic, the attacking midfielder was held out of the decisive 2-0 loss to Vancouver at the MLS is Back tournament even though the Fire needed to score to stay alive.

And when he was asked about his 2020 season after his game-tying goal against Sporting Kansas City, Mihailovic, 22, didn’t use too many spare words.

“This 2020 season is just, you know, up and down like every other season,” he said. “There’s highs, there’s lows, and that’s all I got to say about that.”

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