The notion that Major League Soccer is a retirement home is well established, if no longer factually correct. Once inhabited by the likes of, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane, the league is keen to highlight a changing landscape.

During the off-season the average age of foreign players signed was just 26 years old. Contained within that group was a number of young Designated Players, including: Albert Rusnak, Miguel Almiron, Josef Martinez and Cristian Colman.

It would seem MLS clubs are now eager to build their own stars, and have shifted their focus towards on-field contribution rather than marketing potential. The Chicago Fire believes they have ticked both of those boxes with the acquisition of Bastian Schweinsteiger from Manchester United.

“We make decisions for soccer reasons,” general manager Nelson Rodriguez told reporters on Tuesday. “We make decisions to try to win games on the field. We make decisions to try to build a championship program.

“In this case it would be foolish to deny there are a lot of ancillary benefits to having a personality, a character and a history that comes with somebody like Bastian Schweinsteiger. But this is a soccer decision.”

Understandably, some fans are having a hard time believing that. From the moment the club announced the deal, fans and media alike were scrutinizing it. At 32 years old, Schweinsteiger is most certainly a veteran midfielder. When asked about the former German international’s age, Rodriguez drew comparisons to Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Tom Brady all winning titles in their 30s as well as Chicago favorite Michael Jordan.

The subtle difference of course is that those athletes did not slow down entering their 30s. Jordan played 82 games in his final NBA season, and 60 the year before that. Unfortunately, Schweinsteiger’s time at Old Trafford was also littered with niggling injuries.

When fit, he has been used sparingly this season by Jose Mourinho. Schweinsteiger has accrued less than 150 competitive minutes across appearances in the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup, with his last Premier League appearance for United came a year ago on Monday, during a 1-0 victory against Manchester City.

“He will be much better prepared and conditioned in case his future decision [is] to leave the club – he will be prepared to go to competition,” Mourinho said last year after reintroducing the German to first-team training. “If he stays with us he becomes one more option.”

Admittedly, the former Bayern Munich midfielder’s résumé is a fantastic read. However, he is departing a league that seemed ill-suited for him at this stage in his career. Schweinsteiger’s technical ability has not diminished, but the often end-to-end nature of the Premier League highlighted his lack of mobility all too often. It is in part why Man United sought to break a British transfer record to sign Paul Pogba in the summer, with the Frenchman capable of dominating not just technically, but also physically.

The fact many draw comparisons between MLS and the English game should perhaps have dissuaded the Fire from making a move for Schweinsteiger.

Furthermore, if you speak to fans of the Fire, a veteran defensive midfielder would not be top of their priority list following the off-season signings of Dax McCarty and Juninho. Instead the club is in need of a defender or a player capable to slotting in at the number 10 role behind Nemanja Nikolic.

Speaking on Tuesday, Rodriguez did not rule out playing Schweinsteiger in a more advanced role, but ultimately refused to specify where he saw the German fitting in on the field. “There’s a current trend that the only way to be a successful number 10 is to go to Argentina and find the number 10 fairy tree that bestows you a South American 10,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not saying Pauno is going to play him at number 10, but there’s a lot of different types of playmaker that can impact the game.”

Rodriguez went on to cite Andrés Iniesta and Luka Modrić as examples of such players that can create from deep. A fair point, it does little to mitigate the fact that on the surface Schweinsteiger seems ill-equipped for MLS. Granted, the German will provide a professional presence in the locker room and perhaps even increase the club’s global image. However, at $4.5m it appears an expensive risk to take, especially when you consider how settled the team has looked during the early parts of this season (Saturday’s defeat aside).

A transfer that seems to share many parallels with ill-fated veteran signings of the past, Rodriguez was keen to stress that Schweinsteiger’s arrival was part of the Fire’s three-year plan.

Yet, even he could not ignore the marketing and exposure benefits Schweinsteiger brought with him. The hope now will be that unlike those failed veterans before him, Schweinsteiger’s benefit does not end with marketing and ticket sales. “This decision was made by Pauno and me,” Rodriguez said. “And we should be judged by that.”