The Chicago Stars have been an unmitigated disaster on their way to what looks like a second straight last-place finish and historically bad season. Yet, they just hired arguably the best coach in NWSL history in Vlatko Andonovski to be the architect of their planned resurrection in the biggest staff hiring of the year.
The immediate questions: Will it work? Can the last-place team that can't score (14 goals in 24 games) or defend (54 goals conceded) really become a competitive contender in 2027?
It may sound absurd, but there are a lot of reasons the answer is "yes." Volatility is part of the NWSL's core identity, for better or worse. It is the very reason that Andonovski is available after his shocking exit from the Kansas City Current by mutual consent last week.
Those league trade winds have allowed teams from similarly low places to chase trophies in relatively quick order. The Orlando Pride were once similarly the doormat of the NWSL and won both domestic trophies in 2024. Gotham FC has won two of the last three NWSL Championships and a Concacaf title after years of turmoil.
In his new role as chief soccer officer, Andonovski, the former coach of the U.S. women's national team, believes he can similarly turn around Chicago.
"I had plans like that when I came in Kansas City [in late 2023], and then we expedited everything so much that now I don't want to be unrealistic if I say next year we're competing," Andonovski told ESPN in an exclusive interview. "And for someone that has been in this league from day one of the existence of the league, I know that it's very doable."
The first step in that process is building trust and stability that Chicago has lacked. Poor results can tarnish any team, but in Chicago, those have been coupled with constant staff turnover and confusing decisions. In recent years, the Stars became a team that agents and other club executives did not want to engage.
"As the president of the club, the single biggest drag on my ability to raise the club overall has been this level of instability and this lack of staff retention," Chicago Stars president Karen Leetzow told ESPN.
All that changes quickly with the arrival of Andonovski, who has won two NWSL Championships and, most recently, the 2025 NWSL Shield with a Kansas City Current team that was arguably the best in league history.
Chicago is not simply blindly trusting Andonovski -- they can look at how quickly he transformed Kansas City as both head coach and sporting director as evidence.
Andonovski said Chicago will be "aggressive" in the upcoming transfer window "to improve every line." He has already had conversations with agents about players he is recruiting, including at the U-20 World Cup in Poland, where he was scouting last week. The hard part, Andonovski said, is that he could not yet tell them to which club he was recruiting them.
He has navigated that exact scenario before, when he was transitioning from the USWNT to the Kansas City Current in late 2023. Players bought in on joining him, wherever that might be. That process brought forward Temwa Chawinga to the NWSL and the Current. Chawinga went from the lesser known player in her family to sister Tabitha at the time, to the back-to-back NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner who dominated the NWSL.
That Kansas City team finished second from bottom under an interim staff in 2023, only two points ahead of last-place Chicago. In 2024, under Andonovski, they were an NWSL Shield contender and started the season unbeaten through 15 games.
Andonovski must also hire staff as he did in Kansas City three years ago when he brought in Milan Ivanovic and former NWSL head coach Freya Coombe as assistants. Andonovski needs to hire a head coach and expects to hire a technical director, too. He has plenty of connections to attract strong hires to Chicago.
Ivanovic has been an assistant to Andonovski in multiple jobs for over decade. Multiple sources have told ESPN in recent weeks that Ivanovic has been a candidate for various head coach openings in the NWSL this season, including in Chicago. Andonovski declined to discuss specific candidates and said he will need to confirm the coach, but he added that "every club that is looking for a coach would be happy to have Milan."
"I will have to use all my knowledge, network, reputation to bring the right people in the organization," Andonovski said. "I've been trusted before by people, and it worked out well for them. I'm hoping that my reputation and network will help me bring in good people in the organization again. I will also be focused on bringing players into the club as well. And my main goal will be bringing players that will fit the identity of the club."
Rebuilding Chicago's identity from the ashes
Like Kansas City, Chicago is a Midwestern city, something Andonovski relishes. He embraces the idea (perceived or otherwise) that a Midwestern team can beat teams from the more glamorous coastal cities like Los Angeles and New York.
Andonovski began coaching in the NWSL when it launched in 2013 and witnessed the Chicago teams that went to the playoffs seven years in a row. They included hard-nosed, talented players like Julie Ertz, Vanessa DiBernardo, Danielle Colaprico and Sofia Huerta.
"When we talk about the identity of the Stars, I think the first thing that we need to do is accept the fact that Chicago is a is a Midwestern team, and we should not be ashamed to play like a Midwestern team," Andonovski said. "And anyone that remembers the Stars -- or the Red Stars -- they know that they were tough team to play before anything else.
"They were great, but they were tough. They were disruptive. They were intense. They were physical. They defended well, and that has to be back. I know the fans supported it, and that will be non-negotiable when we talk about the identity."
Andonovski's work is cut out for him. Chicago set a dubious new NWSL record last year with 54 goals conceded in 26 games. And yet, the club is on track to outdo itself: the Stars have conceded that many goals in 24 games this season and there are still six games to play.
Improvement is desperately needed, and Andonovski has long been known as a defensive-oriented coach. For all the praise Kansas City earned offensively last year, the Current only conceded 13 goals in 26 games, also a league record.
"Even if that takes me suiting up and getting on the field, our defense will be something that we're not going to compromise on," Andonovski said.
To do all this, Andonovski needs money and autonomy from ownership. The Stars have been criticized for being one of the NWSL's more frugal teams, but Leetzow rejected that perception. She said the problems the team has faced have come from decision-making.
"I think there are rumors around strategies that we had around spending less but getting more," Leetzow said. "We spent the same as other teams. We spent the salary cap and beyond.
"We just weren't getting the value for those spends that other teams were getting, which started to reveal itself on the pitch. You can see what's happened there, and that's when we knew that whatever this plan was that they were developing on the sporting side was not effective, and we took another look."
The Stars fired general manager Richard Feuz in May. Martin Sjögren was then fired as head coach in August.
"We're going to give Vlatko every tool in the NWSL toolbox to succeed here," Leetzow said. "There's no limit. We're bringing him in to do what he does, and we'll give him all the tools to do it."
Andonovski told ESPN that the vision of Stars majority owner Laura Ricketts was the biggest reason he chose Chicago over several other suitors. (Six NWSL teams reached out, he said, but he declined to name them.)
"Part of the conversation was the vision and what Laura wants this organization to be, and she strives for excellence," Andonovski said. "She understands that in professional sports, excellence is not achieved for free. It takes a lot of investment. It takes a lot of work. A lot of people are involved, and she is willing to do whatever it takes."
Leetzow said that she will be "deeply satisfied that we've turned this club around" if they can be competitive in the coming years. Andonovski? He isn't afraid to discuss championship ambitions too soon. After all, the winds change quickly in the NWSL.