Pity the LAFC front-office number cruncher who had to negotiate down Latif Blessing’s salary. Because if you’ve heard the full scope of what Blessing plans do with future earnings, you’d be tempted to give him designated player money simply as a goodwill gesture, plus a wide range of easily achievable bonuses.



In each of the past few offseasons, Blessing has headed home to Ghana with bags packed full of shoes and assorted team gear. He claims to be the only professional soccer player to have ever come out of his village—given that Nankese is so tiny to not even merit a Wikipedia page, this is hard to fact check but easy to believe—and he takes that responsibility seriously.



“I want is to help my village,” Blessing said. “I want to build pitches for little kids. I want to buy clothes, books, shoes, to take to the schools. I have a little money, so went back and brought a lot of jerseys to the schools. I try to do that all...