The Chicago Fire, yesterday, traded 24-year-old homegrown product Harry Shipp to the Montreal Impact for general and targeted allocation money. This is a very surprising move by the Midwest club because Shipp was an important part in the starting eleven in their previous two seasons in which the Fire struggled and were one of the worst teams in all of Major League Soccer.
Shipp's early career
Harry Shipp is a graduate from the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 2013 after scoring 23 times and assisting on another 24 goals which is a rather remarkable career for the Fighting Irish. He then went on to sign a homegrown deal, the third in Fire history and made his early on in his rookie season playing the full 90 minutes in a match against the Portland Timbers on the road. Shipp’s first goals in the red and blue shirt came two months later when he found the back of the net three times when they played the New York Red Bulls.
One of the more surprising aspects of Harry’s young career is that the youngster has yet to be called into the US Men’s National Team by Jurgen Klinsmann. While he would not knock Aron Johannsson from his more advanced role, Shipp would provide great depth coming off the bench to provide a great spark for the final thirty minutes of a match to wear down the opposition’s defense even more with his constant movement in the attacking half of the pitch.
Montreal gets added energy
He will bring this same sort of mentality to his new team. Shipp is a tireless worker as the Chicago native never stops running. This effort will be rewarded as the Montreal signing will constantly look for open teammates in the final third of the pitch and is not afraid to take a shot if there is space available.