Kento Momota: Accident, Gambling & Net Worth
Kento Momota is a professional Japanese badminton player known to have a skillful and relentless play style on the court.
As they say, a clear goal and persistence is the key to success; he proved his skills and got himself in the second-ranking of the BWF’s best players.
Momota, along with his many triumphs, has won some of the major tournaments like two World Championships titles, one All England title, and two Asian Championships titles.
Momota also entered the Guinness Book of World Records for his achievements by winning 11 titles in the 2019 season.
He entered as “The most badminton men’s singles titles in a season.”
Let’s get to know more about Kento Momota- his family, beautiful and painful paths in his career, and net worth.
Kento Momota: Quick Facts
Here are some quick facts about Kento Momota.
| Full Name | Kento Momota |
| Birth Date | September 1, 1994 |
| Birth Place | Kagawa, Japan |
| Religion | Unknown |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Ethnicity | Asian |
| Handedness | Left |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Father’s Name | Nobuhiro Momota |
| Mother’s Name | Unknown |
| Sibling | Momota Meiko |
| Age | 29 Years Old |
| Height | 5 feet 9 inches |
| Weight | 149 lbs |
| Hair Color | Brown |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Team | Japanese Team |
| Sports | Badminton |
| BWF World’s Rankings | 1st (As of 4/6/2021) |
| Profession | Badminton Player |
| Coach | Yosuke Nakanishi |
| Active Years | 2011 to present |
| Total Matches Played | 427 (342-won, 85-Lost) |
| Marital Status | Unmarried |
| Net Worth | $3 million |
| Social Media | Instagram, Twitter |
| Badminton’s Equipment | Shuttlecock, Racquet, Net |
| Last Update | April, 2024 |
Age, Height, Weight, and Body Measurement
Born on September 1, 1994, Kento Momota is 29 Years Old. As he was born on September 1, his zodiac sign is Virgo.
Momota has decent body measurement as he is an athlete. He stands 5’9″ tall and weighs about 149 lbs.
Kento Momota: Early Life and Education
Kento Momota was born to Japanese parents in Mino, Kagawa.
His father’s name is Nobuhiro Momota. Except for his father’s name, no other information is available about his childhood and parents.
Momota seems to be a private person as he has not disclosed much information about his private life.
Besides Kento, his parents had an elder daughter named Momota Meiko. Kento was raised with his older sister in a loving environment.
Kento Momota: Personal Life
As an athlete, Kento seems pretty involved and focused on his career.
There is no rumor or official statement about Kento having a girlfriend. Neither is he married.
He is really discreet about revealing any personal information.
However, Momota was seen embracing and kissing a woman in Karaoke entertainment.
Similarly, a lot of news outbroke after the scandal, and the scandal got out of control.
Likewise, the scandal broke out after Kento and his teammate, Kenichi was found guilty of squandering millions in gambling which worsened the situation at the time.
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Kento Momota: Career
Kento’s journey of badminton sprouted since his childhood.
He won the first title in the All Japan Elementary School Championships.
After elementary school, Momota again won a similar tournament at the junior level in the All Japan Junior High School Championships.
Later, Kento pursued his further studies and his badminton journey at the Fukuoka High School.
National Championships
Kento made his noticeable entrance in the field of badminton in the 2011 World Junior Championships in Taiwan.
Similarly, the Malaysian player Zulfadii Zulkiffi defeated Kento Momota in the semi-final. However, he took his defeat more as a lesson than discouragement.
Later in the same year, he competed with his seniors in the All Japan Badminton Championship.
Afterward, he, with determination and effort, made himself noticeable by reaching the finals against Kenichi Tago.
Kento continued to learn from his defeats in his future endeavors.
However, Kento avenged his defeat in 2012 by becoming the 2012 Asia Junior Champion.
In the same year, Kento also won World Junior Championship held in Chiba, Japan.
Afterward, the talent of Momota grasped the attention of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation.
NTT offered Momota to join the club, which he gladly accepted in 2013.
Similarly, Momota won all the matches during Japan’s maiden Thomas Cup Victory in 2014, playing second men’s singles behind Kenichi Tago.
International Competitions
Momota, who started from the youth competition, was finally sent to the international challenge competition level in 2013.
He proved himself as a champion in Estonia, Sweden, and Austria.
However, unfortunately, he had to crawl back from the qualifying rounds in the beginning.
But, Momota is someone who always learns from his mistakes and tries never to repeat them.
In 2015, he became the first Japanese player to win the Singapore Open.
He started his international championships with winning spirits in the year 2015 and made some records as well.
Similarly, Momota became the first Japanese player to successfully capture a Super Series in Men’s Singles and holds the youngest Super Series Champion in the category.
The champion made history by becoming the first Japanese player to win a medal in the Men’s Singles category in the BWF world championships 2015 held in Jakarta.
Towards the end of the year, he won the 2015 BWF World Superseries Final in Dubai.
Similarly, he also competed at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and the 2016 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad.
In the 2018 season, he set his career highs by winning the 2018 Asian Championships held in Wuhan.
Likewise, he won 4 BWF World Tour Titles- Indonesia Open, Japan Open, Denmark Open, and Fuzhou China Open in 2018.
He became the first Japanese men’s singles player to get the 1st rank in the BWF World Ranking.
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Back-to-Back Triumph
Towards the beginning of the 2019 season, he had to face defeat in many tournaments.
However, he claimed his first title in 2019 in the German Open, a Super 300 tournament.
Fortunately, Momota became the first Japanese man to win the All England Open title in March 2019, beating Viktor Axelsen.
In the same year, Momota won his second Asian Championships title and other Singapore and Japan open titles.
In August 2019, he became the fourth player to win back-to-back titles.
Later he won China and Korea Opens as well as Denmark Open and Fuzhou China Open.
He ended the year 2019 by winning the 11th title of the year, i.e., the World Tour Finals. He also got the award as the BWF Best Male Player of the Year.
The 2020 season cut short for Momota as he was involved in an accident after winning the Malaysia Masters.
The accident left Kento with injuries to his lips and face as well as a broken nose
COVID and the Aftermath
In January 2021, Momota tested positive for COVID-19 before traveling to Bangkok.
This resulted in the withdrawal of the entire Japanese team from the three tournaments scheduled in Thailand.
In March, Momota returned to international competition at the All England Open. However, Lee Zii Jia defeated Kento Momota in the quarter-finals.
Kento Momota: Car Accident
Back on 13 January 2020, on his way to Kuala Lumpur airport, he got involved in a tragic life-threatening crash.
The van carrying Momota and two other Japanese team officials crashed into the back of a truck.
The driver died on the spot, and the 3 others were severely injured.
However, Momota, who had just won the Malaysian Masters Tournament, suffered from facial injuries in the skin, including skin lacerations and bone fractures.
Nippon Badminton Association secretary-general said, “It’s an absolute miracle for him to be in one piece after a crash like that.”
Momota originally thought he would recover soon, and all he had to do was take care of his fitness.
Sadly enough, the doctors addressed the surgery for an eye socket fracture in February.
“There were times when my spirit was almost broken,” said Kento Momota.
He almost gave up his career with the thought that he would never recover.
However, with the support of his family, fans, and friends, Momota recovered not just his body but his will to aim for gold.
After the successful surgery, Momota got back to what he does best and continued to dream big.
He exclaimed that his vision is good as ever; moreover, he got back to training on 29 February.
Nevertheless, he tried his best to slowly recover and train for the time he lost in hope to regain the sharpness of his body.
He wanted to return to the court soon, but he didn’t want his injuries to worsen. So, he waited and trained patiently till his body was ready to enter the court again.
Kento Momota: Gambling Scandal
Back in April 2016, Kento Momota admitted that he had been visiting an illegal casino in Tokyo.
A casino staff reported against Momota, mentioning that Momota was visiting the casino and gambling there frequently.
An investigation on the matter revealed that Momota had gambled away 0.5 million yen during his 6 visits to the casino.
Similarly, he visited the casino with his teammate Kenichi Tago, who had gambled away about 10 million yen after 60 visits to different casinos.
The secretary General Kinji Zeniya of the Nippon Badminton Association mentioned that it would probably be impossible for Momota to participate in the Olympics of 2016 held in Rio De Janerio
Nobuhiro Momota, Kento Momota’s father, said,” He has no option but to take responsibility on his own because he is an adult. I want him to apologize to the world and correct his behavior.”
At the time, Momota set his career highs with hard work and dedication; thus, BWF ranked him as the 2nd person in the world champs.
Everyone had high hopes for Momota and expected him to bring a medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
However, due to the gambling incident, the authorities banned Momota from playing until late 2017.
Later on, Kento Momota and his teammate Kenichi Tago apologized in a press conference for their behavior.
Moreover, BWF removed him from the world rankings as well. By the time he returned to the game in July 2017, he was in the 282nd position.
Momota refers to the time as the “darkest period of my life.”
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Kento Momota: Salary and Net Worth
In 2019, Momota became the highest-earning badminton player as he became the first to win more than half a million US dollars in prize money in a year.
Momota has a net worth of $3 million.
As per the BWF Badminton, the 29 Years Old has won about $1,250,339 as the prize money to date.
Kento Momota: Social Media
Kento Momota is active on both Twitter and Instagram.
He has about 137.7k followers on Twitter. He tweets stuff about his career.
As for his Instagram, he has more than 315k followers. He often posts about his matches, winning photos, and some photos of his friends as well.
FAQs
Who is Kento Momota’s wife?
Kento Momota has not openly talked about his personal life as there is no information about his marriage.
Is Momota better than Lin Dan?
Momota has a win rate of 80.88%, but Lin Dan is just behind Momota with a win rate of 79.59%.
