providing

How good is Son Heung-min? On the night LAFC celebrated Carlos Vela’s induction into the team’s ring of honor, Vela asked for Son’s autograph.

And he’s not the only one. Small crowds of fans have begun gathering outside LAFC’s training center at Cal State Los Angeles, some waiting for hours, to request Son’s signature on scraps of paper, photos and plush likenesses of the South Korean star in a Tottenham uniform.

On a recent afternoon, Son stopped his car and obliged every one of them.

Forget, for a moment, what he’s done on the field — which isn’t easy to forget since he’s scored six times and assisted on three other goals in seven games, only one of which LAFC lost.

The transformation Son has brought everywhere else since joining the team seven weeks ago has been breathtaking.

He arrived just as the dog days of summer were becoming ferocious. LAFC had been eliminated from the FIFA Club World Cup and the Leagues Cup, had won just four of its last 12 games in all competition and faced a severely compacted fixture schedule going forward.

Yet by dint of personality alone, Son immediately lightened the mood.

“He brings a smile to work every day,” coach Steve Cherundolo said.

A month later he was even more effusive.

“What I’m most impressed [with] is how Sonny treats people. His fans and his teammates,” Cherundolo said. “He’s an incredible human being. He’s very gracious. He’s patient. And he’s just a fine human being.”

That’s why everyone from teammates to security guards at the team’s training center use superlatives like humble, special, gracious, down to earth — and, yes, nice — when describing Son.

Midfielder Timothy Tillman, who was born in Germany, said Son, who played there for five years, surprised him when he began speaking to him in “very good” German.

“I love that he’s talking German with me. Having someone speak in German on the team feels good,” said Tillman, who quickly added what’s become the rote reaction to Son.

“I really, really like him,” he said. “I like that he’s here.”

LAFC’s Son Heung-Min forms a rectangle with his fingers after scoring against Real Salt Lake on Sept. 17.

(Chris Gardner / Getty Images)

Being kind hardly qualifies one for the Nobel Prize. Nor does being liked and appreciated by your co-workers. In many ways, those things seem like the bare minimum we should expect from one another.

But those traits are, many times, rare among superstar athletes — or celebrities in any field. Vela, an MLS MVP and the league’s single-season scoring champion, was often moody and aloof during his seven years at LAFC. Zlatan Ibrahimovic dominated the score sheet during his two seasons in MLS, yet he wasn’t shy about harshly criticizing teammates, which may be one reason why the Galaxy won fewer than half the games he played in.

Son, on the other hand, lifts everyone around him. Last spring, as he neared his final season in the Premier League with Tottenham, an English journalist — who rated players on charity, personality and sportsmanship — christened Son the nicest player in soccer history. (Speaking of sportsmanship, in 2019 when a dangerous Son challenge fractured the ankle of Everton’s André Gomes, Son broke into tears on the pitch. After apologizing — profusely and repeatedly — to Gomes, Son refused to celebrate two Champions League goals against Red Star Belgrade, choosing instead to look into the TV cameras with his palms pressed together in prayer for Gomes’ recovery.)

Now that Son, 33, is playing in the U.S., MLS is getting its first up-close look at what fans in South Korea, England and Germany have known about the player for years. And Son’s kindness and humanity is proving contagious.

Last week teammate Denis Bouanga, who is in the race for the MLS Golden Boot, declined to shoot at an open net, instead slipping the ball to Son, who scored to complete his first MLS hat trick.

“I could have scored. The goal was open,” Bouanga admitted through a translator. “It was good for him to have the feeling to score a hat trick. We celebrated together.”

On Sunday, Son returned the favor, setting up two of Bouanga’s three goals. Bouanga’s second hat trick in three games gave him 22 goals for the season and tied him with Lionel Messi for the league lead. It also made him the first player in MLS history to score at least 20 times in three successive seasons.

“Sonny is a very good player and a very good pal on the field and outside the field,” Bouanga added. “This connection that we have, this chemistry, it was automatic.”

Transformative too: Bouanga and Son have combined for all 12 goals in their team’s last three games — all wins — becoming the first teammates to score hat tricks in three straight games. The most potent attacking duo in the league has also given LAFC (14-7-8) a firm grip on a home playoff berth and made it a legitimate MLS Cup contender.

Son, predictably, deflected the praise, saying that he appreciated the welcome he’s received.

“What should I say? I never expected, to be honest, that welcome or support,” he said after Sunday’s win. “It seems very crazy. But I love that. I’m a very, very happy guy, lucky guy, having this amazing support behind me. I want to give always something back.

“I just want to say thank you.”

That’s exactly what everyone at LAFC has been saying since Son arrived.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

June 4 (UPI) — Federal officials have arrested a Washington man they said provided “significant quantities” of explosive materials to the man who attacked a California fertility clinic in a suicide bombing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California charged Daniel Jongyon Park of Kent, Wash., with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Officials arrested him Tuesday night shortly after he arrived on a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Park had been deported from Poland where he traveled to in the days after the May 17 attack.

Police said Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, Calif., attacked the American Reproductive Centers location in Palm Springs, Calif., using a vehicle-borne bomb. He was allegedly motivated by his anti-natalist views that people shouldn’t be brought into the world without their consent.

The Justice Department said Park shared Bartkus’ views and bought and shipped more than 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus’ home. Park also joined Bartkus in Twentynine Palms, where the two allegedly conducted experiments on how to build explosives using the chemicals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked the Polish government for assisting in returning Park to the United States to face charges.

“Bringing chaos and violence to a facility that exists to help women and mothers is a particularly cruel, disgusting crime that strikes at the very heart of our shared humanity,” she said.

WASHINGTON — The federal Bureau of Prisons must continue providing hormone therapy and social accommodations to hundreds of transgender inmates following an executive order signed by President Trump that led to a disruption in medical treatment, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said a federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other lifestyle accommodations that its own medical staff has deemed to be appropriate.

The judge said the transgender inmates who sued to block Trump’s executive order are trying to lessen the personal anguish caused by their gender dysphoria, which is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match.

“In light of the plaintiffs’ largely personal motives for undergoing gender-affirming care, neither the BOP nor the Executive Order provides any serious explanation as to why the treatment modalities covered by the Executive Order or implementing memoranda should be handled differently than any other mental health intervention,” he wrote.

The Bureau of Prisons is providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The bureau doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the judge said.

The Republican president’s executive order required the bureau to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Lamberth’s ruling isn’t limited to the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. He agreed to certify a class of plaintiffs consisting of anyone who is or will be incarcerated in federal prisons.

Trump’s order also directed the federal Bureau of Prisons to ensure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons.” In February, however, Lamberth agreed to temporarily block prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Transgender Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lamberth, a senior judge, was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.