Chicago Fire midfielder Mauricio Pineda has signed a new contract keeping him at the club until 2026 with the option of a further year.

Pineda joined the Fire in 2020 after playing college football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 2016 and 2019, making 79 appearances for the Tar Heels.

Since then the versatile 25-year-old’s career has gone from strength to strength, becoming an ever-present in a Fire side as a defensive midfielder or as a central defender.

Mauricio Pineda signs three-year contract with Chicago Fire

This season, Illinois-born Pineda has made 11 MLS appearances for a Fire team that currently sit in 14th place in the Eastern Conference table.

Fire Sporting Director Georg Heitz expressed his delight at tieing Pineda up with a new deal saying on the official club’s website, “Mauricio is part of a core group of young players from Chicago that have demonstrated time and again what it means to represent the Club and the city with pride”.