LAFC IN 2025
January 2025 began with historic wildfires that raged across Los Angeles County, after which LAFC made community relief its top priority. Fans, players, and staff hit the streets to deliver food, water, and other essentials to families and first responders across the city. Portions of ticket proceeds from the Black & Gold’s February 11 preseason match against Club América were donated to organizations supporting fire relief efforts.
Across the 2025 MLS season, LAFC organized and executed more than 12 wildfire relief events that directly benefited first responders, families, and children.
LAFC’s home opener against Minnesota was an on-field microcosm of the city’s resilient journey in 2025. Tied 0-0 against what would turn out to be one of the league’s top teams, LAFC found a winner through newcomer Jeremy Ebobisse in the 78th minute, sparking a celebration on behalf of the healing city.
FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP
In mid-May, from out of nowhere, FIFA informed LAFC that it would face Club América in a single-elimination Play-In match whose winner would compete in the FIFA Club World Cup 25. On May 31, 2025, a night that Co-President and GM John Thorrington called “the greatest setting for a club football match that I’ve ever seen in the U.S.,” LAFC battled América deep into extra time, where the Black & Gold’s efforts were rewarded with a 115th-minute strike from Denis Bouanga that provided a 2-1 win and vaulted the Black & Gold onto the world stage.
Hard-fought defeats to eventual FIFA Club World Cup champions Chelsea (England) and ES Tunis (Tunisia) preceded the club’s final FIFA Club World Cup match against Brazilian champions Flamengo. Bouanga’s 84th-minute goal gave the Black & Gold its first tally in the competition, and the 1-1 draw gave LAFC its first point, setting the stage for a potential return to the world’s grandest club competition in 2029.
SON SIGNS
The FIFA Club World Cup laid the foundation for another international event, when LAFC announced on August 6 that the club had acquired star forward Son Heung-Min, “a global icon and one of the most dynamic and accomplished players in world football,” said Thorrington.
The captain of the South Korean National Team and the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot (2021–22), Son leapt right into MLS action, debuting in Chicago three days after the announcement, then recording his first assist the following week, and his first goal a week after that. That inaugural strike against FC Dallas would later be named MLS Goal of the Year.
In all, Son recorded 12 goals and four assists in just 13 games in 2025 (including playoffs), making a goal contribution every 68.9 minutes, the second-best rate in all of MLS. His impact on Los Angeles and the LAFC community was even greater.
Son developed an instant rapport with Bouanga, on and off the field. Just six weeks into their partnership, Son and Denis Bouanga had scored 17 straight goals for the Black & Gold, setting the MLS record for most consecutive goals scored by two players. They would extend that record to 18 the following week in a 1-0 win over Atlanta United at BMO Stadium.
All told, the Black & Gold would go 9W-2L-4T after Son joined the club, with “Sonny and Denis” combining for 25 goals and eight assists, including three hat tricks in a row, making LAFC the first club in MLS history to have a player record a hat trick in three consecutive games.
BOUANGA PASSES VELA
In a late-season road match against Real Salt Lake, Bouanga dribbled half the length of the pitch to score his 94th goal in an LAFC shirt, moving him past LAFC legend Carlos Vela and into first place on the club’s all-time scoring charts. Bouanga got there in only 144 games, besting Vela’s mark of 93 goals in 186 matches.
It was yet another milestone in a career year for Bouanga, who scored a career-best 24 goals in league play and became the first player in MLS history to record three straight seasons of at least 20 goals. The 2025 MLS Golden Boot runner-up, Bouanga also became the first LAFC player to score 100 goals, and the only player in MLS to earn Best XI honors in each of the three previous seasons (2023, ’24, ’25).
CARLOS' NIGHT
Vela would have his moment to shine in 2025, as well. One of the most decorated players in MLS history and LAFC’s all-time leader in games played, minutes, and assists, Vela was honored on September 21 at Noche de Carlos Vela, an all-night celebration of the recently retired forward, who earlier in ’25 had been named LAFC’s first ever Club Ambassador. Music, singing and dancing enveloped BMO Stadium as LAFC defeated Real Salt Lake, with Vela, the first player LAFC signed back in 2017, at the center of it, surrounded by friends and family.
“This is a special moment for me, for my family,” Vela told the capacity crowd just prior to kickoff. “When I signed many years ago, I accepted the challenge to build a club, to build history for a club, to create a competitive team, a winning team. And after all these years I feel proud of where we are. I feel proud of all the memories we have.”
Son remarked afterward: “Carlos, even I was in Europe I was watching clips when he was playing for this club … Everybody was happy to see him. And one day I want to be like him as well, so when I'm retiring, when I come back to LA I hope everybody welcomes me like this.”
MLS CUP PLAYOFFS
Son and Bouanga, and the sterling goalkeeping of the ageless Hugo Lloris, fueled LAFC’s run into the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs, where the club advanced past Austin FC to meet Vancouver in the Western Conference Semifinal. At halftime, the Black & Gold’s magical season appeared over. Trailing 2-0 to the Whitecaps, LAFC came out for the second half on fire, with Son breathing life into their title hopes with a 60th minute goal that pulled LAFC to within 2-1. That score held until Son lined up for a free kick from outside the penalty area in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. His curling missile into the top corner of the net tied the match and went viral around the world.
LAFC would go on to fall to the eventual Western Conference champions on penalty kicks, but Son’s improbable strike from distance represented a parting reminder to anyone who might have wondered about the club’s trajectory in 2026 and beyond.
CHANGE AT THE TOP
As 2025 came to a close, so did the tenure of head coach Steve Cherundolo, who had announced back in May that he would step down after the season and return to Germany, where years earlier he and his wife Mandy had been married and started their family.
Cherundolo led the Black & Gold to more wins than any other MLS club during his four-year tenure, while helping build a strong, competitive culture that not only won matches and championships but developed players on and off the pitch as LAFC grew from upstart success story to legitimate MLS powerhouse.
To replace him, LAFC promoted longtime assistant coach Marc Dos Santos, who had been on the sideline with Cherundolo for each of those 100-plus victories between 2022 and 2025. A passionate, tactically ambitious Canadian, Dos Santos entered 2026 with a mandate to continue LAFC’s upward flight path, and with all the tools to keep climbing.
