According to Japanese media reports on February 18, a highly controversial table tennis player, Tomokazu Harimoto, has signed a contract with the world's top agency IMG. In this regard, many fans have asked: Is Harimoto Tomokazu's commercial value so high? So let’s talk about this topic together.
As we all know, Zhang Benzhi and his parents are both from Sichuan, China. His mother Zhang Ling even joined the national team and participated in the World Series, but did not achieve particularly outstanding results. Later, she moved to Japan and gave birth to a son and a daughter there. , that is, Zhang Benzhihe, Zhang Benzei and brother and sister.
Due to his achievements at the age of 13, Tomokazu Harimoto's bonuses and contract signings have become an important source of income for his family. Especially after signing a contract with Toyota, his net worth has skyrocketed, which is beyond the reach of ordinary table tennis players.
As early as 2019, someone estimated that Zhang Benzhihe's annual income reached hundreds of millions of yen, which may be around 8 million in RMB - as we all know, table tennis is not a very successful commercial sport. Zhang Benzhihe's achievement is already very impressive, enough to "stand out from the crowd".
It is precisely because of sufficient financial support that Tomokazu Hari can get the best training environment at home, while also taking into account cultural knowledge. He was admitted to Waseda University last year. It can be said that he has received good news both on and off the court, becoming A proud person among Chinese Americans.
In fact, before Harimoto Tomokazu, there were many Chinese table tennis players who were naturalized in Japan, including Wei Qingguang (now known as Wei Qingguang), one of the first batch of national table tennis Olympic champions, but their popularity was obviously not as high as Harimoto's. There are many reasons for the current level of intelligence and intelligence.
First of all, Tomokazu Hari is different from Wei Qingguang and Yoshida Kaiwei. He was born and raised in Japan. He is essentially a minority in Japan, not a naturalized player, so Japanese society recognizes him more ——Despite the constant controversy, Tomokazu Hari has clearly integrated into the country.
Secondly, there are two situations when former Chinese table tennis players become naturalized in Japan: first, people like Wei Qingguang who have been famous for a long time and retired from the national team; second, people like Yoshida Kaiwei who have not played well in China Achievement. No matter what the situation is, it means that their threat to the national table tennis team is relatively limited, and their achievements after going to Japan will not be great (He Zhili is slightly different).
But the best age group of Zhang Benzhihe's career is in Japan, and he is also the player from foreign associations who has broken through the main force of the Chinese men's team in recent years. At the same time, he has attracted much attention because of his nationality and identity - regardless of whether it is a good reputation or a bad one. Fame, at least his fame is indeed great, this is an undeniable fact.
Prior to this, another Japanese player also signed with IMG. She is the very familiar Ishikawa Kasumi. As the representative figure of Japanese women's table tennis after Ai Fukuhara, Ishikawa Kasumi is not only popular in Japan, but also in China and other parts of the world, so it is normal for her to be favored by top companies.
With the retirement of Mizutani Hayabusa, the representative of Japanese men's table tennis is Tomokazu Harimoto. In particular, Zhang Benzhihe is only 18 years old now and may participate in 4 Olympic Games in the future. So it is also a long-term investment for IMG. As for the return, what will be the return?
Let’s just wait and see what happens!
