The South Korean superstar is one of the most beloved players on his home continent, giving MLS a valuable chance to raise its profile
South Korean baseball fans have long been accustomed to organizing their weekends around MLB schedules – now it is time for the country’s soccer supporters to do the same with MLS.
Son Heung-min has started his two-year contract with Los Angeles FC, coming just after the attacker helped Tottenham Hotspur become the biggest club in his homeland (even if claims of close to 13 million fans are surely wildly overexaggerated) and one of the biggest in his home continent. Now it is the time to see what he can do in Los Angeles on the field and what the club can do off it.
“They’ve got 24 months to milk the hell out of it,” Sasi Kumar, a former Singapore international and founder of sports marketing agency Red Card Global, told the Guardian. “The commercial opportunities are obvious, staring LAFC in the face.”
Son has been the main man in Asian soccer for years: a golden boot and Puskas award recipient who lifted one of European football’s biggest trophies as a captain of a major club just months ago. Having one of the biggest stars in the world’s most popular league for so long was a matter of national pride in Korea and appealed across Asia. It fueled his superstardom. Son has helped to ensure that, now, pretty much every talented young Korean star wants to go straight to England’s top tier.
