Son Heung-Min, one of the best Asian soccer players of all time, is switching the U.K. for the U.S.
Fabrizio Romano, soccer’s premier insider reporter, was among the first to report the news. A verbal agreement was reached Sunday afternoon that means Los Angeles FC will be sending Son’s English team, Tottenham Hotspur, between €15 and €20 million (roughly $20-26 million), according to reports.
Son, 33, developed into one of the best players in the world while playing for Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League – England’s highest professional soccer division and widely regarded as the world’s most competitive league. Just this past season, Son led the club to their first trophy in 17 years, winning the Europa League title, although they finished 17th of 20 in the Premier League — incredibly disappointing for a club of that size.
He played his last game for Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday as they tied 1-1 with fellow Premier League club Newcastle United in a friendly that, fittingly, took place in South Korea.
Before Spurs, the Korean superstar forward – who is considered one of the most talented Asian players of all time and, in his prime, one of the best players of any position in the world – plied his trade in the German Bundesliga with Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen. He has also become one of the most famous Koreans on the planet; Forbes ranked him second on their 2024 Power 40 Celebrities Korea, only behind the immensely popular K-pop group Blackpink.
Son now joins an LAFC side that sits 6th in the Western Conference as of Sunday, ten points behind conference leaders San Diego FC.
It was not immediately clear when Son would make his debut for the club, and neither LAFC nor Tottenham Hotspur immediately made any statements on the transfer.
Major League Soccer, or MLS, has become a haven for stars in Europe to have one last go at professional play before retiring; one of the best players of all time, Lionel Messi, plays for Inter Miami — and his perceived career rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been linked with a move to the MLS in the past, but he currently plays in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr.
Other legends that have graced the MLS include David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, Kaká and Wayne Rooney. More recently, the likes of Gareth Bale and Olivier Giroud — both of whom found much success in Europe throughout the 2010s — donned the black and gold of LAFC, which was established in 2014 and played its first match four years later.
Unlike most American sports, soccer clubs do not usually trade players; rather, they purchase them during summer and winter transfer market periods.
For context, the €15 million being paid by LAFC is paltry when compared to the most expensive transfer of all time: Paris Saint-Germain buying Neymar from FC Barcelona for €222 million (roughly $257.4 million) in 2017.