Copyright Los Angeles Times
Does this sound familiar? A Los Angeles team signs a superstar to a record-setting deal. Overnight that team’s uniform becomes ubiquitous in a major Asian capital, where the player appears on billboards, magazine covers, in countless advertisements and on TV, all while dominating his new league and leading his team to the playoffs. Shohei Ohtani, right? Well, yes. But he’s not the only one whose story fits that description because Son Heung-min is more popular than K-pop in his native South Korea, and as a result LAFC is quickly becoming the country’s favorite soccer team. “His face is everywhere,” said Doane Liu, who was representing Los Angeles at the World Union of Olympic Cities conference in Seoul earlier this month. “But more than anything he is endorsing soccer in a country where baseball is slightly more popular. “LAFC games are now broadcast live here in Korea.” That includes Wednesday’s playoff opener with Austin, which will kick off at 11:30 Thursday morning in Seoul on streaming platforms that signed multiyear deals to broadcast LAFC games just weeks after Son joined the team. As captain of the South Korean national team and English Premier League power Tottenham, Son was a household name in South Korea long before joining MLS on a record $26.5-million transfer in August. But LAFC and its U.S.-based league were both largely unknown. That’s no longer true. With Son scoring nine goals and assisting on three others, LAFC lost just one of the 10 regular-season games in which he played to earn home-field advantage in its best-of-three postseason series with Austin. And that’s drawn attention in Korean communities on both sides of the Pacific. Media-credential applications for LAFC home games have increased 30% since Son’s arrival, with 10 Korean outlets covering the team on a regular basis. Son’s black LAFC home jersey quickly became the best-selling soccer shirt in the world while the team doubled its YouTube audience, with more than 70% of the new followers joining from South Korea. “Definitely the Korean Ohtani in a country that celebrates celebrity culture,” Liu, who is Korean-American, said of Son. “Everyone should be working with Sonny. He’s one of the biggest global brand ambassadors in the world, and it was a brilliant move to recruit him to play in L.A.” “He’s going to help bring Korean tourists to Los Angeles, much like Ohtani is attracting Japanese visitors,’’ added Liu, L.A.’s chief tourism officer. Dodger infielder Hyesong Kim, who started playing in Los Angeles a few weeks before Son arrived, is another fan. “We’ve actually been to one of his games,” he said through a translator. “As a fellow Korean, it is a great honor to play in the same city together.” Asked if Son is indeed a bigger celebrity in baseball-mad South Korea, Kim didn’t wait for the translation to answer. “Son. 400%,” he said in English. Son is far from the first major international superstar to wear the LAFC jersey. Carlos Vela, Gareth Bale, Olivier Giroud and Giorgio Chiellini played for the team; Hugo Lloris and Denis Bouanga are still there. But only Vela, the Mexican national team star who was LAFC’s first-ever signing, has had anything near the impact of Son, who has transformed the club on and off the field. “Sports superstars like Ohtani and Sonny transcend borders,” Larry Freedman, LAFC’s co-president, said. Freedman said during last summer’s negotiations with CAA, the agency that represents Son, the club was told “you guys do not understand the level of celebrity and stardom that you will be dealing with if the player comes to LAFC.” “And we kind of did the ‘but wait a minute. We had Vela. We had Giorgio Chiellini, a national treasure in Italy,’” Freedman continued. “Their response to us was, ‘this is more like Beatlemania in 1964.’ And they weren’t wrong.” The Dodgers quietly concede Ohtani will generate sponsorship and merchandise revenue that will more than cover the $700 million they’ll pay him on his 10-year contract. Freedman said LAFC is anticipating Son will more than pay for his contract too. “Look, nothing is guaranteed, right?” he said. “But we’re hopeful that we have this combination of one plus one equals three or four. The early indications are pretty positive. The impact on the field has been incredible and winning is good for business. “We’ve now got an opportunity to share the LAFC experience with people who are interested in LAFC because of the player. We’re not going to pretend that that’s not happening. It’s happening. The pipeline for partnerships is more robust than it’s ever been, and it includes a good number of Korean-based brands.” So is the Sonny-Shohei comparison a valid one? “I would not lead with my chin and suggest that this is exactly the same experience that the Dodgers have had and are having with Shohei,” Freedman said. “But in the couple of months that [Son] has been with us, we are definitely seeing signs that we are on a good path.”
