ATHLETIC: LAFC “pushing hard” for Son Heung-Min this summer

Submitted by daniel on
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The stories about Son Heung-Min’s Tottenham Hotspur future aren’t going to go away anytime soon. Already this summer we’ve seen rumors that he’s open to leaving Spurs for another challenge, and we’ve seen reports that say he’s more likely to stay at Spurs for at least another season, possibly longer.

So let’s throw another log on the fire, shall we? Paul Tenorio, a senior soccer editor at The Athletic, is now reporting that MLS side Los Angeles FC are “pushing hard” to bring Sonny in this summer, but the decision will ultimately be decided by Son and Spurs.

We’ve written before on how LAFC wouldn’t be the worst place for Sonny to spend his twilight years. It’s a large metropolitan city with a big Korean population. It’s a marginally shorter flight back to Korea for international duty, and it’s a place where Son would do well and enjoy a pleasant lifestyle. LAFC have a Designated Player spot held for Sonny should he decide to take them up on the offer, meaning they could afford a decent transfer fee should they want to pony up the dough. Also Son could play against Lionel Messi a couple of times a season. There’s a lot to like there!

That said, the MLS record transfer is $22m, and people who watch a lot more MLS than me have said that LAFC typically only bring in players that they can later move on for profits. Their record transfer cost $11m. Adding an aging superstar in Son Heung-Min would be a definite shift for them — not that it wouldn’t happen, just that it’d be a change, and it’s unlikely they’ll want to break the bank for him. Even with one year left on his contract, I’d hazard a guess that Spurs would want more than £8m for their club captain and one of the best players in club history.

The report says that nothing is close to finished, just that LAFC want Son pretty badly. I bet they do! Anything is possible and I wouldn’t completely rule out an exit, but to me it feels like a January departure to LA (or elsewhere) is more likely — it’s the start of the MLS season, and it would give Tottenham a chance to find out if Sonny’s still got the juice and is willing to sign a new contract to keep him at Spurs, or not.

We’ve vacillated wildly on the will-he-or-won’t-we spectrum over the past month or so, and I think that pendulum will continue to swing until we get a definitive idea of what Sonny wants to do. I suspect not even he knows that yet.