Does this sound familiar?
A Los Angeles team signs a superstar to a record-setting deal. Overnight that team’s uniform becomes ubiquitous in a major Asian capital, where the player appears on billboards, magazine covers, in countless advertisements and on TV, all while dominating his new league and leading his team to the playoffs.
Shohei Ohtani, right?
Well, yes. But he’s not the only one whose story fits that description because Son Heung-min is more popular than K-pop in his native South Korea, and as a result LAFC is quickly becoming the country’s favorite soccer team.