Good things come to those who wait…just ask Jason Shokalook.

Born on September 30, 2002, Shokalook grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania and quickly became accustomed to constant traveling: every Monday and Wednesday, his mother would pick him up from school and drive 2.5 hours south to Pittsburgh so that he could play hockey, and another 2.5 hours back, and every Tuesday and Thursday, they’d drive 2 hours west alongside Lake Erie and head to Cleveland, where he played football. This ended after two years as Shokalook decided to focus on playing soccer, which paid off with a scholarship offer from the University of Akron, where he majored in business. After gradually cutting his teeth, Shokalook exploded onto the scene for the Zips in 2022 with a team-high tally in goals (9), points (24), shots (38) and shots on goal (22).

He did even better in his senior year in 2023, racking up a league-high 14 goals and 5 assists in 17 appearances and earning praise from the likes of Michael-John Tate for his stellar displays in attack, as well as leading all BIG EAST players in shots (83) and points (33) and winning the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year award. After impressing at the collegiate level as well as the semi-pro level with USL League Two sides SC United FC and Flint City, Shokalook earned an invitation to the adidas MLS College Showcase in Phoenix and made his mark, so much so that Chicago Fire selected him with the 35th pick of the 2024 MLS SuperDraft.

Shokalook played second-fiddle to MLS Next Pro Golden Boot and Golden Ball winner David Poreba during his first season, but he nevertheless racked up 3 goals and 3 assists in 27 appearances in all competitions. He began the 2025 campaign on the bench before having a frank discussion with new manager Mike Matkovich in 2025, who told him that he would be given a chance – but that it would be up to him to take advantage. Shokalook was able to repay his trust, embarking on a stellar run of form and even making his MLS debut vs. D.C. United, emerging as one of the breakout stars in the entire competition. All things considered, Shokalook took home the MLS Next Pro Golden Boot award with 20 goals in the regular season before deservedly signing an MLS contract with the Chicago first team. As he looks to kick off his first-ever top-flight campaign, Joy News spoke to Shokalook about a number of topics, including:

As someone who was constantly travelling back and forth from Pennsylvania to Ohio in order to play football, I’m sure that you didn’t have much time to go to parties or hang out with friends…did you feel like you missed out on a huge chunk of your adolescence because of these sacrifices?

Most definitely, but it's something that I never, ever regret, because I think that if you're going to make that sacrifice every single day, then, as a kid, you ultimately know that you're missing out on these things, especially with the social media age. How that shaped me was that it created a hunger inside of me, and I decided that if I'm going to do this, then I really want to make this happen, and I'm going to do everything that I can, and I'm going to reach out to every person I can to get all the information possible. I didn't see failure as an option at that point, because when you make that sacrifice, and you spend all of that time in those cars, which drove a hunger inside of me to try and really push to do everything I could to make this sacrifice. And the crazy part about all of this is that, when you're in a professional environment, this isn't very abnormal: a lot of the guys have had to make these types of sacrifices. It just shows that if you really want to become a pro, you might not need to drive 4 hours every day, but if you have to, you’ve got to do it.

Last season was an amazing year for you individually, but what did you make of it from a team perspective? Chicago lost 4 of their last 6 and failed to get past New York Red Bulls in the playoffs…what do you think went well and what went wrong?

I think that as a team, we started the season a little bit slow, and then we didn't lose a game in June/July and were starting to win games by large margins. We were making an incredible push to become a great team in the league, and we had a great group of guys…overall, everyone bought into our system. Just like in any professional season, there's a lot of road bumps, injuries, loans, all of these types of things, and I think that just comes with the professional style of soccer. But I think towards the end of the season, we really got it all together. We won our first game in the playoffs against New England, which was a massive win for us, and then we went on the road to play New York Red Bulls at their place. It was a really back-and-forth game against the team that won the league. It went from 1-0 to 1-1 to 2-1 to 2-2, 3-3, and then they ultimately ended up winning the game, obviously, but I was really proud of the team for our growth in the season and how hard we fought and how well-connected we were on and off the field. It was just a great group of guys with a great coaching staff; everyone in the club was behind us, and we really appreciated it. I'm really grateful for that team and the season that we had.

Lastly, what’s your message to the Chicago Fire fanbase?

I would say that I know that we have a group that is going to come in and work as hard as we can every single day and do everything possible to go and get wins for this city. I think that we want to bring a lot of joy in the soccer world to Chicago. I think our overall message is that we're willing to work, and we're willing to do what it takes to win games and to make the city proud. I would just say that we're all super grateful: the whole Chicago Fire organization is super grateful for all of the support through highs and lows that the fans have given us. We're preparing now for the 2026 season, and we're going to be ready.