This is more or less how John Thorrington thought it would play out when he embarked, nearly a decade ago, on the journey that would bring Asia’s greatest footballer to Los Angeles FC. Not so much the details of how Son Heung-min would impact club and league — not the immediacy, perhaps not the magnitude — just that it would happen, that it would be big, and that it would feel like this, what right now feels like.
Thorrington was more realist than visionary. He’s an L.A. boy; he understood the city’s fabric, its makeup, how the diverse, expansive terrain intersects and aligns, and what that might mean for this burgeoning, hugely ambitious project. The football stuff? That’d take care of itself — the Korean superstar’s pedigree was no joke — but this could be so much more.
So much more it has been. The venerated, 33-year-old striker, fresh from a glorious decade at Tottenham, has transformed a good Major League Soccer side into a great one. He’s tied together what had been a dynamic if not always coherent attack, thrillingly so, and launched an explosive partnership with high-flying Denis Bouanga that has, for many, vaulted the West’s No. 3 team to club-most-likely as the MLS Cup fight heads into this weekend’s conference semifinals.
What Son is doing beyond that — amid the largest Korean community outside of Korea and with the eyes of a mammoth global following upon him– has been more profound, culturally and commercially. All part of the plan.
“We’ve been trying to make this happen, basically, since LAFC’s inception …,” Thorrington, co-president, general manager and primary architect of the eighth-year club’s enduring success, told Soccer America. “Obviously, we knew his on-field quality. And we’ve always wanted LAFC to reflect Los Angeles. Sonny accelerates that vision in a very powerful way. …
“The commercial benefit was never something we were going to ignore. Part of our modeling and our analysis was informed by the commercial potential of bringing Sonny here, which honestly enabled us to afford what we needed to do. … It was not easy, but we always believed that Sonny was worth it.
“I think this always starts with what can the player bring on the field? And yes, there are already commercial successes about jerseys sold and media attention, tickets sold, all of these things, which obviously are an important part of us running a good business to support our team. But the success here will be measured on the field and in trophies and in performances, not commercially. That said, of course, there have been commercial benefits. And I think, again, when I talk about what we want LAFC to mean in our community, in this league, and globally, I think Sonny accelerates that vision.”
Son cost $26.5 million, the richest transfer in MLS history, but it’s a pittance for the rewards he can and has begun to deliver. At home, his presence has ignited the 370,000-strong Korean community spread across Greater Los Angeles, providing a connection to an audience that hadn’t, for the most part, embraced LAFC or soccer in America.
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