��������

LOS ANGELES: Son Heung-min agreed to a contract with Los Angeles FC on Tuesday, finalizing his move to Major League Soccer after a decade at Tottenham Hotspur.
The 33-year-old South Korean superstar forward is joining LAFC three days after he formally announced his decision to leave Tottenham.
Son attended LAFC’s Leagues Cup match against Tigres at BMO Stadium on Tuesday night, watching from a luxury suite. LAFC will formally introduce Son at a news conference Wednesday, but the club showed the forward on the stadium video board late in the first half as he waved to roaring fans thrilled by their team’s landmark acquisition.
LAFC, a deep-pocketed club with significant team success in its first eight seasons of existence, reportedly paid a transfer fee of more than $20 million, which could end up being the most ever for an MLS move.
Son was a beloved presence at Spurs, scoring 173 goals in 454 competitive appearances for the North London club while rising to global prominence with his combination of speed, playmaking skill and finishing acumen.
The captain was given a memorable farewell last week in Seoul during Tottenham’s exhibition match against Newcastle, getting a guard of honor from both teams and tearfully exiting in the second half while nearly 65,000 fans roared.
But South Korea’s most popular athlete — and almost certainly the greatest Asian soccer player in history — has chosen an auspicious stage for the next chapter of his groundbreaking career.
Los Angeles has the world’s largest ethnic Korean population outside Korea, with the city’s vibrant Koreatown district sitting just a couple of miles from LAFC’s BMO Stadium.
LAFC is undoubtedly hoping to market Son as a soccer counterpart to the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, albeit on a smaller scale. Ohtani, the three-time MLB MVP from Japan who is on a trajectory to become the greatest Asian player in baseball history, draws fans from across the Pacific Rim to Dodger Stadium while attracting millions in sponsorships and partnerships for the Dodgers.
Son’s move to California also puts him in position to make an impact on and off the field at the World Cup, which will be held across North America in 2026. Son, the captain of his national team, already has said he will play in his fourth World Cup.
After leading Tottenham to its first European trophy in decades by winning the Europa League in May in a fitting cap to his English career, Son will go straight into the MLS Cup race when suits up for his new club. LAFC currently sits sixth in the Western Conference at 10-6-6, but with multiple games in hand on every team in front of it because of its participation in the Club World Cup.
Son’s seven Premier League goals last season were his fewest since his Tottenham debut, but he still appears to have the pace and skill necessary to be a difference-maker at any level. He also turned 33 only a month ago, putting him on the younger end of the global stars recently arriving in MLS.
Lionel Messi and Marco Reus were 35 and Luis Suárez was 37 when they went stateside in recent years, while Olivier Giroud and Hugo Lloris were both 37 when they joined LAFC last year.
Son will be reunited in Los Angeles with longtime Tottenham teammate Lloris, who has been outstanding since becoming LAFC’s goalkeeper last season.
High-scoring French forward Denis Bouanga is the only designated player currently under contract for LAFC, and general manager John Thorrington has been criticized by some fans for not using the full power of his financial resources this season. LAFC spent months on an ultimately failed attempt to get France’s Antoine Griezmann to leave Atlético Madrid.
Bouanga and Son have both thrived on the left wing during their careers, but Son likely has more positional versatility than Bouanga, making him a candidate to line up in the middle or even on the right wing.
Son seems to be an infinitely better fit for LAFC than Giroud, who moved to Lille last month after one disappointing year in California. LAFC plays a counterattacking, speed-based style that didn’t suit Giroud’s goal-scoring strengths, while Son should be right at home in such a system.
But LAFC also could alter its style in the winter after coach Steve Cherundolo departs for Germany following four largely successful seasons highlighted by an MLS Cup championship.

MONTREAL: Naomi Osaka powered into her first National Bank Open semifinal, beating No. 10 seed Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday night.

Osaka advanced to face No. 16 seed Clara Tauson, who eliminated sixth-seeded Madison Keys 6-1, 6-4 in the first quarterfinal of the night.

Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion who reached No. 1 in the rankings, continued her best performance in a WTA 1000 tournament since reaching the final in Miami in 2022. She stepped away from tennis for 15 months toward the end of that season and had daughter Shai in July 2023.

The native of Japan is seeking her eighth career title and her first since the 2021 Australian Open.

Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko takes on ninth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the other semifinal Wednesday. Mboko, who’s playing in her first main draw at the National Bank Open, will rise into the WTA’s top 50 after beginning the year outside the top 300.

The 18-year-old from Toronto has defeated five higher-ranked opponents en route to the semifinals, including top seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round.

Tauson dedicated her victory to her grandfather, Peter, during an on-court interview at IGA Stadium.

“I really wanted to win for him today,” she told the crowd before breaking down in tears. “I really wanted to come out here and show my best tennis for him, and hopefully he’s watching.”

Tauson said she only found out about her grandfather’s death on Monday, a day after she eliminated Wimbledon champion and No. 3-ranked Iga Swiatek 7-6 (1), 6-3.

She spoke of him as one of the biggest supporters of her career.

“He used to coach me a little bit playing tennis and drove me to almost every single practice from my school,” the 22-year-old native of Denmark said. “It was tough news yesterday morning when I woke up, but I think it’s for the better. He was not feeling great for a while.”

Tauson hasn’t lost a set in the tournament.

Keys failed to convert two break chances in the first game. After the American held serve, Tauson won the ensuing five games to take the first set.

“Not my best performance out there today,” said Keys, who won this year’s Australian Open. “She played amazing tonight. She played incredibly well, she served really well. It was just one of those things where I felt like I kept trying different things, and she was just beating me.

“When she’s serving like that, it’s going to be really hard to break her.”