CHICAGO (Jan. 13, 2014) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Monday that they have signed Chris Ritter as the club’s fourth Homegrown Player. Ritter, a Fire Academy and PDL product, joins the Men in Red from Northwestern University. Per league and club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Embodying what Chicago loves about its athletes, Chris is a tough, hard-working and skillful player,” said Chicago Fire Head Coach and Director of Soccer Frank Yallop. “Kudos to our player development system for producing players like Chris that can smoothly transition to the First Team.”

Ritter, a Winnetka, Ill. native, joins the Fire after a successful collegiate career at Northwestern University. In 84 regular season matches, Ritter scored 14 goals and tallied 13 assists. Selected as a member of the Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2009, Ritter was also named Second Team All-Big Ten Team in 2011, was twice named First Team All-Big Ten, and was honored as the 2012 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after leading Northwestern to its second straight Big Ten regular season title.

A graduate of New Trier High School in Winnetka, the Fire Academy and PDL alum joins Victor Pineda, Kellen Gulley and Harrison Shipp as the fourth Homegrown Player in Fire history.