The South Korea captain has brought attacking quality to LAFC, as well as a willingness to be a face for the league

After the final whistle of LAFC’s 4-1 win over Real Salt Lake Wednesday night, Son Heung-Min took time for everything. He did a TV interview, and answered each question gracefully. He smiled for fans, and took in the scenes around him. And then, after the furor had died down, he did a post-game media availability, taking on each query with the kind of effort you might expect out of a much younger, much more naive professional athlete. 

It helped, too, that he was excellent on the pitch. Son dazzled with the first of what you might suspect will be many hat-tricks for LAFC, cutting through a helpless Real Salt Lake side with the kind of razor-sharp grace that both Spurs and South Korea fans took in for years.

It was a strange evening in the scope of modern day Major League Soccer. Superstars aren’t supposed to do this anymore. They don’t give up spare time or smile for the cameras. They might not even impact the game that much.

For some, coming to America, kicking a ball about a bit, grabbing a paycheck, is something of an extended holiday. Even the best to ever play the game – and some of the best to ever grace the league – have treated things more like a kickabout and drive home than a sporting duty.

Yet here we have Son, who breaks that mold. So much of the conversation around his signing was about how important he would be for the Korean community, or how much he would raise the profile of MLS. That is all true. 

But what is perhaps missed, somehow, in all of this, is the fact that Son is a very good footballer who takes this job very, very seriously. And for LAFC – the soccer team and brand – his impact could not be more welcome.