It’s a large bummer that San Diego FC and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano won’t be teaming up in the 2026 season. 

Hamstring injuries and an insubordinate episode sidelined Lozano for several games last year, but when the 30-year-old wing had his legs under him, he played entertaining soccer.

Lozano’s header goal off a pass from Anders Dreyer beat LA Galaxy in May and held up as the signature play of the expansion club’s precocious season that reached the Western Conference final.

Instead of singing “El Chucky Lozano, El Chucky Lozano!” in coming months, SDFC fans will see what comes from other attackers who’ll join Major League Soccer MVP runner-up Dreyer, 27, atop coach Mikey Varas’ lineup.

Had it worked out over multiple seasons, the Lozano-SDFC pairing would’ve created big rewards.

The club’s appeal throughout the region would’ve gone up, especially among Mexican-American locals who remember Lozano for Mexico to beat Germany in the 2018 World Cup.

San Diego FC’s decision to move on without Lozano is the right one, despite the heavy vibe of what might have been.

Neither the soccer fit nor Lozano’s durability profile were great for this season. The team has shown a knack for buy-low acquisitions that pay off. Perhaps veteran forward Lewis Morgan, a skilled Scottish attacker with MLS experience, added in December, can extend that success. The team will search for another designated player to bolster its attack, general manager Tyler Heaps said.

Team ownership may have to eat money to make it happen, but cutting ties with Lozano, who can help find a suitable trade or loan partner, beats the alternative of opening up the competition.

Given how many personnel moves panned out last year, when SDFC won the 15-team conference’s regular-season title and became the second club in Major League Soccer’s 30-year history to reach the conference championship, Heaps and Varas have earned some benefit of the doubt.

“In year one, there were a lot of electric moments,” Heaps said of Lozano, who had nine goals and eight assists in 27 regular-season matches and three goal contributions as a second-half entry across four playoff matches.

“But I do believe that this club has shown that this is all about the collective,” he added. “There’s no one player that’s going to be bigger than the club. There’s no staffer that’s bigger than the club.”

Heaps said the decision was entirely the club’s and involved Varas, ownership and CEO Tom Penn.

“It’s ensuring that we have the players in-house that fit the environment, that want to get better every single day and that have really bought into what we’re trying to do every single day,” he said.

If Lozano can get up to full speed elsewhere and earn a spot in the World Cup, it won’t be a surprise. He retained good quickness and stamina last year, when he was able to build himself up.

SDFC has a build-around star in Dreyer, a successful coach in Varas and a sharp defensive midfielder and captain in Jeppe Tverskov, among other selling points.

Good players will be interested in joining the team.

Morgan, 29, was the MLS Comeback Player of the Year two years ago when he led New York to the MLS Cup appearance.

This can work out for everyone involved.

But if the Lozano-SDFC fit had been what the team anticipated when it made the much-ballyhooed acquisition, that outcome, for team and fans, would’ve been as tough to top as Lozano beating Germany in a World Cup.