San Diego FC wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano recommitted to the club that left him home for the regular-season finale, left him off the roster for the first playoff game and left him out of the starting lineup for the remainder of its historic inaugural season, including Saturday night’s 3-1 loss against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Western Conference final.
“I’m very happy here,” the 30-year-old Mexican star said in Spanish on Monday during exit interviews with local media. “I have a contract here with San Diego. We have to come back and work hard next season to have a great season.
“My mentality is to be here and support the players, the coaching staff and the club overall to get to the best form possible and reach our objectives.”
His personal objective is making Mexico’s 2026 World Cup roster in June, something only a handful of players have done while playing for an MLS club. And coming off the bench, as he did for the final four games, probably isn’t the best route.
“That is the biggest honor that you can live, to represent your country in a World Cup, especially for Hirving on home soil,” SDFC coach Mikey Varas said. “We want the same for him. He’s under contract, he’s with us and we’re happy to have him. But we also want him to play in a World Cup, so anything to support him.”
Might that involve at least a short-term loan to a club in Mexico or elsewhere that would enhance those chances?
Lozano seemed to close that door Monday. SDFC sporting director Tyler Heaps did not.
“We’re open to anybody if any offer does come through,” Heaps said. “What I can say right now is nothing has, so there’s no need for me to speculate about what we would do if nothing is there. We’re expecting him back in preseason and, yeah, we want him to go to the World Cup.
“We want all of our players to go to the World Cup. We want to try to help all of our players who are with us get to that stage.”
When healthy, Lozano was the regular starter at left wing through Oct. 4, when Varas subbed him at halftime and Lozano, in a later Instagram post, admitted “I didn’t react in the right way.” Lozano didn’t travel with the team to Portland for the final regular-season game, then didn’t suit up for the first playoff game. He averaged 30 minutes in four playoff games since, scoring twice.
Asked Monday to provide his side of the story about what has been described as verbal altercation in the locker room, Lozano simply said: “That’s a matter of the past. We’re going to put that behind us and move forward.”
Amahl Pellegrino, a journeyman forward acquired from San Jose late in the summer transfer window, replaced him and started all five playoff games, scoring three goals. Lozano became the league’s highest-paid backup at $7.6 million, which is $1 million more than SDFC’s entire starting lineup on Saturday and fifth-highest in MLS.
Pellegrino is 35 and out of contract, but Heaps said the club is “actively” negotiating to re-sign him.
“I think he showed this year that he has the quality but he can also fit within what we’re trying to do,” Heaps said. “He is a player we are trying to keep around for next year.”
Transfer talk
SDFC’s other designated player (who doesn’t count against the salary cap) is Danish right wing Anders Dreyer, who came from Belgian club Anderlecht on a $5 million transfer and made $2.4 million this year.
He was widely regarded as the league’s best player not named Lionel Messi after 19 goals and 19 assists in 34 games, but that also means there might be interest from European clubs – and a chance for SDFC to get a handsome return on investment.
“I have two more years in San Diego. I signed for three years,” Dreyer said of a possible transfer. “But I also learned in football, you never say never. We don’t know what will happen, and I don’t know what will happen. Of course, it’s a big decision. It’s not only me. It’s the club and what they want.
“I think now I’ll enjoy a little bit of a rest, then in a week or two I’ll start thinking about football again. So yeah, we will see what will happen.”
Surgery for CJ
First-choice goalkeeper CJ dos Santos missed the final three playoff games after a horrific collision at Portland that required surgery followed by months of rehab.
Dos Santos said he suffered an orbital floor fracture below his left eye that left him with double vision. He recently was cleared to ride an exercycle and lift weights, and hopes to try running later this week.
“It’s such a complicated thing with the head injury, with the bone and with the vision,” dos Santos said. “The initial conversation was just to get healthy and just to get where I feel comfortable enough just to do everyday things, and then progress from there.
“The vision is a lot better now. I can only see one of you, thankfully. But I haven’t really tested it out yet in a game sense or a training sense. … I’m trying to get as close to match fit as possible going into the preseason.”
An MLS debut
Backup goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega started Saturday but got a straight red card in the 79th minute, forcing 19-year-old Duran Ferree into an unscheduled MLS debut.
“It was definitely a quick turnaround,” Ferree said. “I wasn’t really expecting it to be a red card. When I saw the red, I got ready really quick. It’s definitely a strange feeling at the end of the day, a little bittersweet, because it’s very big to make your MLS debut but of course it’s a very unfortunate ending.”
Ferree returned to SDFC at midseason after a loan spell with sister club FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark. Now he could be the opening-day starter in 2026 with health questions surrounding dos Santos and Sisniega likely serving a one-game suspension in his next MLS game from the red card.
“We’ll see how things go,” Ferree said, “but I’ll always be ready for the opportunity when it comes my way.”