{"id":416121,"date":"2025-12-01T00:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416121\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:23:14","slug":"stay-or-go-san-diego-fc-chucky-lozano-have-a-decision-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416121\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay or go? San Diego FC, Chucky Lozano have a decision to make"},"content":{"rendered":"

The game and season over, Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano broke away from his teammates Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium and walked slowly around the field\u2019s perimeter by himself, waving to the crowd, clapping his hands, tapping the crest on his jersey.<\/p>\n

Was it a thank you, or farewell?<\/p>\n

Gratitude, or goodbye?<\/p>\n

San Diego FC ended its inaugural season with a 3-1 loss against the Vancouver Whitecaps<\/a> in the Western Conference final and now begins its inaugural offseason. No question looms larger than what happens with its highest paid player and avowed face of the franchise.<\/p>\n

Normally, the answer would be simple after finishing first in the Western Conference and coming a game from MLS Cup: He\u2019d be back.<\/p>\n

But the 30-year-old winger was left home for the regular-season finale after a locker room \u201cincident,\u201d<\/a> then didn\u2019t start any of SDFC\u2019s five playoff games despite making $1 million more ($7.6 million) than the combined salaries of the Saturday\u2019s starting lineup.<\/p>\n

And looming in six months is a World Cup on home soil, with Lozano trying to claim one of the final spots on Mexico\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something super amazing that the World Cup is going to be in your country in front of your people,\u201d Lozano said in Spanish on Saturday night. \u201cEvery player is excited to play in a World Cup at home. (Coach) Javier Aguirre and his staff gave me a chance to fight for a spot. I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I have to work a lot, I know I have a lot of things to improve. But I hope I can come back in the best way and earn the opportunity to go to a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SDFC'sSDFC\u2019s Hirving Lozano acknowledges the fans after losing to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Western Conference final at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

It was the first time Lozano spoke with the media since he angrily reacted to being subbed at halftime of an Oct. 4 game at Houston, resulting in what amounted to a two-game internal suspension and loss of his starting spot to 35-year-old Amahl Pellegrino. Media was requested to only ask questions about the game, with the pledge that Lozano would be made available to discuss the past and future sometime this week.<\/p>\n

Lozano came off the bench at halftime Saturday and scored SDFC\u2019s only goal, a spectacular shot from distance that sailed over Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka before dipping into the net.<\/p>\n

Asked if he is frustrated that a player of his pedigree can\u2019t start in MLS, Lozano cracked a wry smile and said in Spanish:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a decision from the coach and I respect it. You want to play from the very beginning, but I came in some games with little or many minutes, always trying to help out the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

SDFC essentially has three choices: Keep the league\u2019s fifth highest-paid player, sell him or arrange a loan deal.<\/p>\n

Keeping Lozano requires patching things up with Varas. The body language between the two over the past two months has been frosty at best, and not starting Lozano in the biggest games in the club\u2019s short history may have damaged their trust beyond repair.<\/p>\n

Lozano was already taking a risk by coming to MLS, a league historically not respected by Mexican national coaches. Not being a regular starter in MLS in the run-up to the World Cup might be a death knell to those dreams.<\/p>\n

Another factor: Does SDFC re-sign Pellegrino, who played well down the stretch after being acquired from San Jose but is out of contract?<\/p>\n

SDFC paid a reported $12 million transfer fee to pry Lozano from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, and recouping most or all of that could be difficult. The most logical destination is his native Mexico, and no Liga MX club has ever paid more than $10 million for a player in his 30s (and only twice over $8 million).<\/p>\n

The other option is a loan deal, even a short-term deal for Liga MX\u2019s Clausura season that runs from January through May and could offer Lozano first-team soccer under the watchful eye of Aguirre ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Mexico City\u2019s Club America has the richest payroll, but many consider Chivas of Guadalajara as a more viable destination. There\u2019s also Pachuca, where Lozano came up through its youth academy and began his pro career. And the Tijuana Xolos, which theoretically would allow him to keep his family in San Diego and commute across the border.<\/p>\n

\"SDFC'sSDFC\u2019s Anders Dreyer (left) congratulates Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano after his goal against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

In his post-game news conference Saturday, Varas declined to speculate on Lozano\u2019s future with the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I won\u2019t answer that question because we just lost the (conference) final,\u201d Varas said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a lack of respect for the fact that we just lost a big game and these guys did an amazing season. All I will say is that Hirving has fully committed to the project, and you can see that he came in with a lot of energy, a lot of will to win the game. He was trying to help the team make a comeback and scored a goal that got us one step closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varas and other club officials have provided few details about what happened at halftime in Houston and how they avoided it derailing their season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think we handled it very well, both internally as a team but also as a club,\u201d captain Jeppe Tverskov said Saturday. \u201cI felt like the right decisions were made. \u2026 I feel like Chucky also has been understandable. We\u2019ve talked to Chucky about it. I feel, for the whole team and for the whole club, that the process was good, because we managed to get results after all the attention and all the talk that was in the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got him back in the squad and (saw) him contribute like he did today. We know he\u2019s a great player, and we love having him on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lozano remains the expansion club\u2019s most popular player, by a wide margin. After his 60th minute goal provided a ray of hope on an otherwise dark night, the sold-out Snapdragon Stadium crowd spontaneously erupted into chants of, \u201cOhhhhh, Chuuuuucky Lozaaaaano.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said it from the beginning: We had a very important mission and had big plans for the city,\u201d Lozano said. \u201cWhen they call out to me, smile at me, wave at me, it\u2019s something I want to give back \u2013 give back the love that they give me. The supporters were great this season, for me especially, chanting my name, even in warm-ups.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight I was lucky enough to score a goal. It was very special for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gratitude, or goodbye?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The game and season over, Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano broke away from his teammates Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":416122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,15520,7264,221,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-416121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-fc","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115641464687613592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}