On December 9, local time, the world's most watched sports athlete was none other than Shohei Ohtani.
The 29-year-old baseball pitcher, born in Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan, has received the highest-ever signing in MLB history, signing a $700 million, ten-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. As soon as the news of Ohtani's signing came out, it became the front page headline of many newspapers in the United States, which in turn also attracted great attention.
It is reported that if the number of years of service is not considered, the contract of 700 million US dollars (about 5.02 billion RMB) obtained by Ohtani is also the highest record in sports history, surpassing the 674 million US dollars that Argentine football star Lionel Messi received when he played for Barcelona FC for four years.
Ohtani now plays for the Los Angeles Angels, no more than 10 kilometres from there to his new place of work, but it has also taken his life to new heights.
FS1 sports analyst Skip Bayless praised Ohtani as "Hollywood's biggest sports star," while NBA Lakers star LeBron James was relegated to second place.
According to Japanese media reports, Otani belongs to the "wild ball boy", that is, a child who is almost obsessed with baseball, which may have something to do with his family, his father is an amateur baseball player, and his mother was a national badminton player in high school, and he also has an older brother Ryuta, who is also an amateur baseball player.
Ohtani is a talented type of athlete who excelled under his father's tutelage as a child, which is the main reason why he was able to become a professional baseball player when he grew up.
At the age of 18, he threw a 160 km/h fastball, setting a Japanese high school baseball record at the time (surpassed by Rouki Sasaki 9 years later).
Because of his outstanding performance, Ohtani set himself the goal of playing in MLB early, but in the end he played for the Hokkaido Japan Ham Fighters for 5 years, and it was not until 2018 that he became a member of MLB, playing for the Los Angeles Angels, which is his current club, and of course he will leave immediately.
However, Otani will not be playing for the Dodgers anytime soon as he is recovering from elbow surgery (he was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in August) and is not expected to play until the year after, in 2025, which has some fans worried about his future as a pitcher, after all, this is the second time in his career that he has undergone surgery, the first being when he first arrived in Los Angeles.
It is reported that very few baseball players have been able to successfully recover from two surgeries.
And when it comes to the Dodgers, this is a really star team, and in addition to Ohtani's MVP, there are two MVPs - Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
According to the report, the Dodgers are not the only team interested in Ohtani, and the Toronto Blue Jays originally had more hope. The day before the news of Ohtani's signing with the Dodgers was announced, he was also thought to be likely to sign with the Blue Jays, and there have even been reports of this.
Canadian rapper Drake even shared a picture of himself wearing a jersey with the name "Ohtani" printed on it on social media, which made the rumors more true.
And after Ohtani "fell" the Dodgers, the Blue Jays fans turned their anger on Drake, accusing him of being "really full of curses." In fact, Drake is quick to assert which team will win, basketball, baseball, or even soccer, but the usual situation is that he predicts which team will win, and the outcome will be the opposite.