Hirving “Chucky” Lozano will not return to San Diego FC for a second season.
San Diego sporting director Tyler Heaps told reporters Friday that he is working on a departure for Lozano, the 30-year-old Mexican national team mainstay who joined the Major League Soccer expansion club for its inaugural season in 2025 as its first designated player.
Lozano scored nine goals in 27 appearances during the regular season and added two goals in the MLS postseason, but he also was benched late in the season after an altercation in San Diego's locker room.
San Diego finished atop the Western Conference during the regular season, setting MLS records for wins and points by an expansion team, before losing 3-1 to Vancouver in the conference final, with Lozano scoring San Diego's only goal.
“We have communicated with Hirving and his representatives that he will not be part of the sporting plans moving forward," Heaps said. "That was not a decision that was taken lightly. That was something that was well talked through from owners down to leadership down to myself and (head coach) Mikey (Varas), and has been communicated with the rest of the group. So we’re working with him and his representatives to find the best solution and the best environment for him moving forward.”
Lozano left PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands to sign a four-year deal with San Diego. He made $7,633,333 last season, ranking fifth among all players in MLS and complicating a potential transfer.
Heaps said Lozano's ability within San Diego’s desired style of play was a factor in the breakup. While Lozano had moments of success, Danish winger Anders Dreyer emerged as San Diego's best player and offensive focal point, scoring 19 goals and earning MLS Best XI honors as the league's newcomer of the year.
Lozano excelled at times in Varas' possession-heavy style of play, but he wasn't included on the roster for two late-season matches amid reports of the altercation in San Diego's locker room. Lozano vaguely apologized for his actions on social media, saying he was "proud to be a part of the club’s journey for many years to come.”
But Lozano returned to the roster largely as a reserve during the postseason, and now the club is moving on without a key attraction in its attempts to win over San Diego's large Mexican-American population.
“There’s no one moment that you can pinpoint,” Heaps said when asked whether the locker room altercation affected the club's decision. “It was more a wholly collective decision that we made on behalf of the group. We’re looking at not only short-term success, but also long-term how this club is built for the future.”
Lozano has been expected to be a part of Mexico's roster for its home World Cup this summer, but he likely will have to find a club landing spot quickly to gain the match sharpness necessary to contribute.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
FILE - San Diego FC midfielder Hirving "Chucky" Lozano (11) plays during the second half of MLS soccer's Western Conference semifinal against Minnesota United Nov. 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.
In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”
He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.
“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”
Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.
Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.
“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”
Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.
Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.
Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.
Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”
While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.
“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
