Son is exactly what Los Angeles FC and MLS need

LOS ANGELES – When Son Heung-min was substituted in his final game for Tottenham Hotspur on Aug 3, it took more than three minutes for him to get through the hugs and applause from all the players and leave the pitch.

The hugely popular South Korean attacker helped define an era at the English Premier League club, and he will be deeply missed by teammates, staff and fans.

Son is joining Los Angeles FC (LAFC) for a record Major League Soccer (MLS) fee of about US$26 million (S$33.4 million) – more than the total wage bill of the club, according to the Los Angeles Times.

That two-year deal might seem like a gamble on a 33-year-old whose trademark speed has started to fade, but his grace, technique and composure should still see him light up a team who have struggled for goals this season.

And that is barely half the story. What makes this a truly astute move for LAFC is Son’s immensely bankable star power.

His name might be less familiar to many Americans than Lionel Messi or David Beckham, but in South Korea and among its diaspora, his celebrity and reputation is almost unsurpassed. 

Son’s move should be a shot in the arm not just for LAFC, but also for the MLS, as the sport scrambles to build interest and capitalise on the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico.

It is hard to overstate Son’s importance to Tottenham over the past decade.

Off the pitch, he has built a huge following for Spurs among Korean fans. Thousands attend Spurs matches, and “Son” named team shirts outsell all others with as many as 700 being shifted on match days, according to The Athletic.

In South Korea, one-quarter of the 51 million population claimed to be Spurs fans in 2022, according to research commissioned by the insurance company and team sponsor AIA Group Ltd.

All this is worth up to US$80 million in revenue per season, according to an estimate in the Daily Mail. 

America is about to get a taste of this fervour.

Los Angeles County is home to the biggest Korean population outside the country itself. The community has been buzzing since rumours of his move began, Kim Kyeong-jun, a writer with the biggest US Korean-language news organisation told the LA Times. 

“The passion and influence of Korean and Korean-American fans should never be underestimated,” Kim said. “Son’s arrival at LAFC will benefit not only the club but the league as a whole.”

And the MLS could do with a boost.

There have been grumbles from club bosses about viewer numbers since Apple Inc paid US$2.5 billion for 10 years of exclusive broadcast rights and made it available only to streaming subscribers from 2023.

League commissioner Don Garber revealed for the first time in July that games were attracting about 120,000 unique viewers to Apple TV.

Those numbers are not comparable to audited linear TV figures, so the revelation prompted confusion, but many in the sport are convinced that audiences have shrunk compared with what games on ESPN used to attract.

Another worry is that Messi, 38, will retire soon.

The Argentinian lifted match attendances and sponsorship money across the MLS on joining Inter Miami in 2023. When he stops playing, fans and brands could drift away, too. This happened when Beckham left LA Galaxy in 2012.

Despite Miami’s rapid growth since Messi arrived, and league-leading revenue of US$180 million in 2024, the Florida side remain second to the LAFC in the Forbes ranking of most valuable MLS franchises. Worries about whether Miami can keep these commercial gains are holding them back. 

Bringing older football stars to the United States to win fans and audiences has long been the US model: Before Messi, there was the imperious Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and way before Beckham, there was Pele.

But Son’s fan base and commercial clout trump many of these names.

It remains to be seen what the future holds but one thing for sure, Son will definitely be a plus to the MLS. BLOOMBERG