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.
MLS does not enjoy anywhere close to the same stature – there has traditionally been little interest in the league in Asia, and it was barely mentioned as a possible destination for the 33-year-old. There has been a debate in Korea going back a few years when and where Son should go – a club like Barcelona was the one often mentioned. Even when the forward struggled for form and fitness last season, there were still options in Europe, where most expected him to stay. A move to Saudi Arabia was always unlikely. For a player who has never played in the K-League, going to a rival Asian competition may not have gone down well in his homeland where he has been the face of more than 30 brands. Still, MLS was not, initially, a popular choice.
“At the beginning, the fans’ reaction was divided as some wanted Son to stay in Europe and play in the Champions League for at least one more season,” said Lee Seung-mo, a Seoul-based author and journalist. “However, after Son explained why he chose LAFC and MLS, now the majority of fans understand and support his decision.” Being based Stateside also makes sense ahead of the World Cup, likely to be Son’s fourth and last appearance at the tournament.
Lee admits that not all the fans who have watched Son in England will watch him in the US. “It won’t be 100% the same in MLS in terms of viewership as the Premier League has the most fans of any league but most Son fans will want to watch MLS.”
Those years at the top of the game have made Son into such an icon in his homeland that he can transcend any competition he plays in. “His image cuts across different demographics, geography – everything,” said Kumar. “Whenever Spurs played you got Asians from all of Asia supporting him, he’s such a loveable character, you didn’t need to be a Spurs fan to like him,”
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LAFC has advantages. While MLS may not be the EPL, the USA is also not the UK. Economically, South Korea already has a strong connection with the US, sending almost 20% of exports in an export-based economy to the United States in 2024, compared to just 1% for Great Britain. “The Korean market is so connected to the US; it is a huge market for Korean beauty products, electronics, cars, phones etc,” Kumar said. “Son has provided a platform and opportunity to enter the market with a huge asset. The obvious thing for LAFC is to tour Asia and they should actively look in different markets for brand and content partnerships. LAFC’s commercial team will be working overtime how to sell digital assets, image rights and work with global brands like Samsung and Kia.”
Such Korean companies have always been involved in sports (the K.League was – and, to a large extent, still is- based on corporate ownership and Hyundai has been hugely influential in the Korean Football Association over the years) and there should be plenty of knowhow on the opposite side. “What is well known about American sports in general is that they are arguably the best in sports marketing, and I’m sure LAFC and MLS both will try their best in Korean market,” said Lee.
The fact that LA have made such a big deal of the signing has gone down well. Steve Han is a LA-based Korean content lead for Fifa and host of Fairpoint podcast and has witnessed the excitement. “At the introductory press conference, there were Korean journalists who attended with LAFC shirts on,” Han told the Guardian. “For years, LAFC have already been one of the most well-branded clubs in MLS. Even the contents that the club pushed out so far have really got the fans excited. The stage is set for Son to put the icing on the cake now.”
