Does this sound acquainted?
A Los Angeles workforce indicators a celebrity to a record-setting deal. In a single day that workforce’s uniform turns into ubiquitous in a significant Asian capital, the place the participant seems on billboards, journal covers, in numerous commercials and on TV, all whereas dominating his new league and main his workforce to the playoffs.
Shohei Ohtani, proper?
Effectively, sure. However he’s not the one one whose story suits that description as a result of Son Heung-min is extra fashionable than Ok-pop in his native South Korea, and consequently LAFC is rapidly turning into the nation’s favourite soccer workforce.
“His face is everywhere,” mentioned Doane Liu, who was representing Los Angeles on the World Union of Olympic Cities convention 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 features Wednesday’s playoff opener with Austin, which is able to kick off at 11:30 Thursday morning in Seoul on streaming platforms that signed multiyear offers to broadcast LAFC video games simply weeks after Son joined the workforce.
As captain of the South Korean nationwide workforce and English Premier League energy Tottenham, Son was a family identify in South Korea lengthy earlier than becoming a member of MLS on a document $26.5-million switch in August. However LAFC and its U.S.-based league have been each largely unknown.
That’s not true. With Son scoring 9 targets and helping on three others, LAFC misplaced simply one of many 10 regular-season video games during which he performed to earn home-field benefit in its best-of-three postseason sequence with Austin. And that’s drawn consideration in Korean communities on each side of the Pacific.
Media-credential purposes for LAFC house video games have elevated 30% since Son’s arrival, with 10 Korean shops masking the workforce frequently. Son’s black LAFC house jersey rapidly grew to become the best-selling soccer shirt on the planet whereas the workforce doubled its YouTube viewers, with greater than 70% of the brand new followers becoming a member of from South Korea.
“Definitely the Korean Ohtani in a country that celebrates celebrity culture,” Liu, who’s Korean-American, mentioned 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.
LAFC’s Son Heung-min smiles as he catches a football before a Rams-49ers game at SoFi Stadium.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
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 mentioned via a translator. “As a fellow Korean, it is a great honor to play in the same city together.”
Requested if Son is certainly a much bigger movie star in baseball-mad South Korea, Kim didn’t anticipate the interpretation to reply.
“Son. 400%,” he mentioned in English.
Son is way from the primary main worldwide celebrity to put on the LAFC jersey. Carlos Vela, Gareth Bale, Olivier Giroud and Giorgio Chiellini performed for the workforce; Hugo Lloris and Denis Bouanga are nonetheless there.
However solely Vela, the Mexican nationwide workforce star who was LAFC’s first-ever signing, has had something close to the impression of Son, who has remodeled the membership on and off the sector.
“Sports superstars like Ohtani and Sonny transcend borders,” Larry Freedman, LAFC’s co-president, mentioned.
Freedman mentioned throughout final summer time’s negotiations with CAA, the company that represents Son, the membership was informed “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 income that can greater than cowl the $700 million they’ll pay him on his 10-year contract. Freedman mentioned LAFC is anticipating Son will greater than pay for his contract too.
“Look, nothing is guaranteed, right?” he mentioned. “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 comparability a legitimate 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 mentioned. “But in the couple of months that [Son] has been with us, we are definitely seeing signs that we are on a good path.”
⚽ You’ve got learn the most recent installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a highlight on distinctive tales. Hearken to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
