Blake Snell enjoyed his first year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, having already won a World Series and forming new friendships on and off the field.
One of which happens to be with international soccer star Son Heung-Min, who joined Los Angeles Football Club from Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League in August on a record-breaking transfer fee of around $26 million.
The Dodgers hosted Son at Dodger Stadium during a regular season series against the Cincinnati Reds. The footballer exchanged jerseys with Freddie Freeman on the field before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Snell.
The Dodgers also played a video montage welcoming Son to Los Angeles, though Snell was already plenty familiar with the South Korean soccer star.
“He came up for the first pitch and I was already a big fan of his because I used to play FIFA all the time and he was the best player in the game,” Snell recently said. “I was a big fan of him just from that and then watching him play.
“We just became really good friends after that. We were talking, and I went to his game and he came back out to the playoff game and we’ve just been building a friendship.
“We’re friends and talking, and we’ll see where the relationship goes, but we support each other and it’s been a really fun friendship.”
As Snell mentioned, he returned the favor by making the trip to BMO Stadium alongside Hyeseong Kim for an LAFC match against Real Salt Lake in September.
Kim and Snell posed for a photo with the LAFC star before the match, and later received an ovation from the fans in attendance when they were shown on the video board.
Snell also made his way to Vancouver over the weekend to watch LAFC face Whitecaps FC.
Blake Snell’s friendship with Hyeseong Kim
Snell has also formed a fast friendship with Kim in their first season as teammates on the Dodgers. The 10-year veteran had a high opinion of Kim even before meeting him, thanks to a glowing character reference from his former San Francisco Giants teammate Jung Hoo Lee.
Lee and Kim were KBO teammates for seven years while playing for the Kiwoom Heroes. The pair had an extremely similar path to the MLB, as both debuted for the Heroes in 2017 at just 18 years old.
Lee left the KBO to sign with the Giants in 2024, and Kim soon followed in 2025.
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