Currently plying his trade for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani is to baseball what Lionel Messi is to soccer. A generational two-way player, meaning he excels at both pitching and hitting, he signed a 10-year, $700 million contract – then the largest in the sport’s history – at the end of 2023.

For the Dodgers, this eyewatering sum of money saw an immediate return with the iconic Ohtani inspiring the Californian franchise to the 2024 World Series. Here we see a fan snapping a photo of Ohtani’s mural in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

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