The stunning impact of Son Heung-Min’s arrival at LAFC this summer can be quantified with hard data like the record-setting demand for tickets to LAFC’s home matches (a new standing-room-only section has sold out) or the growth of LAFC’s social media presence (which has more than doubled on some platforms).
One could also point out that LAFC’s announcement of Son had a global reach five times bigger than the club’s previous benchmark for high-profile signings – the 2022 acquisition of Gareth Bale – or that LAFC content garnered an estimated 33.98 billion views in early August (a 594% increase) – or that the club saw a 289% increase in media coverage.
The best evidence of Son’s influence, however, is harder to measure unless you walk the streets of LA’s Koreatown district, the bustling enclave that covers roughly three square miles south of Hollywood and west of downtown, and is the epicenter of the largest Korean population outside of Asia.
“Just driving around or walking around the community now, you see older men wearing Son jerseys. That’s new,” said Mike Mikita, a longtime member of LAFC’s Korean supporters group, Tigers SG. “At our last watch party there were so many new people who came out, so many people excited to be there with new flags and new chants, and all these different social media videos.”
“What’s unique about this is that it’s multi-generational,” added Mikita, a local high school teacher. “Before, it was about Korean Americans—people who had been born in America, raised in America, were comfortable in English—but we're really seeing the Korean Koreans come out, and that is so much fun and so exciting because that was a community that really needed this and wanted this.”
In K-Town there has always been as much signage in Korean as in English, but suddenly those signs are displaying the likeness of LA’s newest star, who’s also the greatest Asian footballer in history and the most famous Korean in the world (except perhaps the members of K-pop bands Blackpink or BTS).
Take for example the mural of Son that covers an entire block in Koreatown, adorning the exterior of Brothers BBQ, which has served the Korean version of the smoked delicacy for the last 10 years.
Song Bin Ju Vargas said that his dad, Bu Gweon Ju, who owns the restaurant, “has always been proud and supportive of the local Korean community, but when Son came to LA Football Club he stepped things up.” Within hours of the announcement, the elder restaurateur commissioned an artist to add the Son mural to the painted flags that were already there, citing a connection that stretches across the Pacific.
“My father is from the same hometown as Son,” Ju Vargas continued. “He said a few decades ago in Korea he played in a local football club in Chuncheon with Son’s dad, and he remembered seeing [Son] there when he was little.”
Similar connections have sprung up across Son’s new city.
“A lot of family and friends are coming out of the woodwork,” said Josh Ahn, another member of Tigers Supporters Group (TSG). “They knew I go to LAFC matches, but it was never a big deal to them. And suddenly they were like, ‘Oh my God, it's happening.’ I have a friend who used to tell me, ‘I can't believe you go and stand for three hours [at LAFC matches]. I would never.’ He texted me shortly after [Son signed] and was like, ‘I'm ready to stand for six. Let's go.”
And this is only the beginning, Ahn added. “I can’t guarantee it will be Ohtani Dodgers level, but it will be comparable.”
“This supporters group is my family, it's my friends,” said Mikita. “It's so tied to who we are. For us, [Son’s arrival] has been a culmination. It happened so quickly and so suddenly and there was just this outpouring of joy in seeing it come to pass, because so often it's just rumor. We weren’t 100 percent sure it was going to happen. The success of the club in making sure this happened feels very special for all of us.
“It’s going to change the culture of BMO [Stadium] a lot,” Mikita continued, “just seeing these different groups of people coming to games. And it’s up to us as a club culture to bring them in and say, ‘Hey, come hang with us, come spend time with us.’ That's part of the work we have to do that I'm excited about. Letting them know there's no gatekeeping. It's like, ‘Welcome, we’re so excited you're here. Let's share this together.’”
LAFC faces San Diego FC at BMO Stadium on Sunday, August 31, at 7:30 p.m. The match will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, with radio coverage on 710 AM ESPN LA, the ESPN LA App, and 980 AM La Mera Mera.
