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| AFP Yonhap News |
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| AFP Yonhap News |
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The 'Son Heung-min effect' is making the Major League Soccer (MLS) dance.
Son Heung-min has been at the center of every issue over the past month. The news of the transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to LA FC itself was a shock. The announcement that LA FC invested $26.5 million (about 36.9 billion won), the highest transfer fee in MLS history, to catch him shook the world. Local politicians were invited to the joining ceremony, and numerous Korean fans filled the stadium in the away game. Son Heung-min's first home game at BMO Stadium on the 1st was played with 22,000 tickets sold out.
LA FC is on a jackpot march. The club said last month that the effect after Son Heung-min joined is unprecedented. Specific data such as home games sold out and social media views more than doubled are emerging'After Son Heung-min joined the team, the number of club-related content views increased by 594% to 33.98 billion. Media coverage of the club also increased by 289%. LA FC recently signed a broadcasting rights contract with KYPA, a local Korean radio broadcaster.
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| Yonhap News |
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| APYonhap News |
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MLS Commissioner Don Garber seems to have been satisfied with the phenomenon of Son Heung-min. Speaking to reporters ahead of the recent League Cup final between the Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami, he said, `What has happened around Son in the last few weeks has been amazing. The enthusiasm of Korean fans was really great. The ratings were great, and Son Heung-min's performance on the field was also good", he commented. It would have taken a lot of courage for LA FC to spend the biggest transfer fee in MLS history, and they would have expected this. Now the fruits are starting to come to fruition,' he added.
Son Heung-min's craze is being compared to Lionel Messi, who wore a Miami uniform earlier. After Messi wore his Miami uniform in 2023, the number of subscribers to Apple TV, OTT in charge of official MLS broadcasting, as well as selling out tickets to home games, has soared. The number of Miami SNS followers, which was less than 1 million before joining Messi, has increased significantly to more than 13 million, and the price of tickets has also soared nearly 10 times. With Messi's joining, it is even evaluated that the status of MLS itself has been re-established not only in the United States but also in the world. Son Heung-min's performance not only in Korea but also in the U.S. for over a month is difficult to compare with Messi, but it deserves to be evaluated as sufficiently sensational.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
