What a Korean player over Messi, the number of views is 34 billion!! Has there ever been such a player in history? Son Heung-min worked

Sep 20, 2025

LAFC is really seeing the effect of recruiting Son Heung-min. It's a mess outside the stadium, too.

Son Heung-min's team LAFC won a 4-1 victory in the 2025 season of the U.S. Major League Soccer (MLS) regular league game against Real Salt Lake at 10:30 a.m. on the 18th (Korea time).

Son Heung-min was the main player in the victory. Son Heung-min, who scored the first goal in the second minute of the first half, scored multiple goals in the 16th minute of the first half to make the game 2-0. Son Heung-min, who scored a hat trick in the 38th minute of the second half when he was chased 2-1 after, achieved his first hat trick since moving to the U.S.

LAFC edited the highlights of the game, focusing on Son Heung-min's performance against Salt Lake, and posted them on its official YouTube channel on the 19th. Surprisingly, the number of views exceeded 660,000 (as of 9 a.m. on the 20th) in about a day. How great the 660,000 views is is that it ranked second in LAFC YouTube history in a day. It is a record that shows that Son Heung-min is a world-class superstar beyond Korea.

The hat trick video against Salt Lake didn't just explode. The highlight of the San Jose Earthquake match, which scored 52 seconds into the game, was released five days ago, with 570,000 views. San Jose Highlights ranks third in the most views in LAFC YouTube history. It has been about a month since Son became an LAFC player. However, there are already four videos related to Son among the top 10 views on YouTube. If it is a video of Son Heung-min, the number of views is 200,000.

LAFC is so popular that it never receives this much attention. Other player videos released by LAFC have difficulty exceeding 10,000 views. Compared to the match against San Jose alone, Son Heung-min's first goal has about 50,000 views, but Dennis Buanga's video, which achieved a hat trick, has about 5,000 views. There is a tenfold difference.

It's not just YouTube that has the effect of recruiting Son Heung-min. Broadcaster Vine Sports said on the 20th that LAFC's recruitment of Son Heung-min not only revolutionized MLS but also created an unprecedented craze in Los Angeles. The South Korean striker, affectionately dubbed 'Sonny', scored a hat trick in the first few games, and in just two weeks, his No. 7 jersey posted the highest sales in the league, outpacing even Lionel Messi,' he said, reporting Son Heung-min's current popularity is more than Messi's.

According to club vice president John Tarrington, Son Heung-min's joining exceeded the impact of Gareth Bale in the past five times. He also explained that his SNS followers doubled, and the number of LAFC-related content views soared by 594% to about 34 billion times.

Son Heung-min is showing his best skills with crazy performances on the field, and he is giving huge profits to the club with his huge popularity off the field. LAFC paid $26 million (about 36.3 billion won) to bring Son Heung-min, but Son Heung-min is making an effect that seems to be lacking even 40 billion won.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.