Son Heung-min's Journey: From Tottenham to LAFC

Son Heung-min sat in London and scoffed at the idea.

Los Angeles FC wanted him. Major League Soccer was calling. His response was instant.

“Why would I go to MLS already? I’m definitely not going,” he told his agent at the time.

For a player who had grown up in the sharp edges of European football — debuting in the Bundesliga with Hamburger SV, then becoming a star in the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur — the American league looked like a soft landing, not a new summit. In his mind, MLS was where careers went to slow down, not where an elite forward in his prime chose to test himself.

That story, and the way it flipped, was laid bare when Son appeared on the podcast “The Late Run,” whose latest episode dropped Friday. Relaxed, reflective and occasionally amused at his own past assumptions, he walked listeners through why he turned his back on Europe’s top five leagues and signed for LAFC last summer.

From dismissal to decision

Son’s first contact with LAFC came while he was still Tottenham’s captain and cornerstone.

“When I was in London, my agent told me that LAFC were interested in me,” he recalled. The idea barely lasted a second in his head. He still viewed MLS through the old lens: a retirement tour, not a real step in a competitive career.

But time has a way of reshaping certainty.

With one year left on his contract at Spurs, after a decade in North London, the familiar suddenly felt constricting. He had scored goals in the Premier League, carried the armband, lived through managerial changes and near-misses. The routine, once exhilarating, began to feel like a loop.

“When I had one year left on my contract, I felt that I needed a new challenge,” Son said.

That’s when LAFC came back into the frame — and this time, he listened. His agent urged him to sit down with the club’s hierarchy. No promises, just a conversation. They met over Zoom.

What Son expected to be a polite pitch turned into something else. He realized LAFC had tracked him for a long time, not as a marketing trophy but as a player they believed could shape their future.

“I realized that LAFC had been following me for a long time, and I could feel how genuine their interest was,” he said. “That made me decide to move.”

The sincerity cut through his old prejudices about MLS. The need for a fresh challenge did the rest. A decade at Tottenham ended. A new chapter in Los Angeles began.

A league he underestimated

If Son’s view of MLS had been blunt, he was just as blunt about how quickly it changed once he arrived.

He admitted he “didn’t know much” about the league before signing. The reputation that had formed in his head — a slower, lower-intensity competition — didn’t survive his first experiences on American soil.

What struck him most wasn’t just the tempo or the travel. It was the scale.

“I was surprised and happy to see the stadiums packed for every game,” he said.

Crowds, noise, colour — a league that once looked distant from Europe suddenly felt alive and ambitious. For a player who had carried the expectations of a nation at World Cups and in the Premier League, the atmosphere mattered. It told him he hadn’t stepped away from the spotlight. He had stepped into a different one.

And he knows the timing is critical. With the World Cup’s glow still lingering and North America preparing to host the tournament in 2026, Son sees responsibility, not comfort.

“After the World Cup, it is now the responsibility of the players and the league to keep that momentum going,” he said.

That’s the challenge he chose: not a farewell tour, but a project. LAFC bet that Son Heung-min could be a driving force in MLS’s next phase. He once dismissed the idea out of hand.

Now he’s one of the players tasked with proving his old perception wrong.