A Spanish soccer fan who was trekking more than 6 900km from his home country to Qatar ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has gone missing in Iran.
This is according to his family, which spoke to reporters on 25 October. The reports state that Santiago Sánchez, an experienced hiker, and former paratrooper, had not been heard from since the day he crossed into Iran from Iraq three works ago.
Prior to arriving in Iran, Sánchez, 41, had trekked through 15 countries over the last nine months and had been sharing his journey on Instagram.
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He had planned to arrive in Qatar in time for Spain’s first match at the FIFA Soccer World Cup, which is scheduled for 23 November.
‘We are deeply worried. My husband and I can’t stop crying,’ his mother, Celia Cogedor, told ESPN. His family last heard from him in an audio message on 2 October, a day after he crossed into Iran.
In the audio message, Sánchez said he was planning on going to Iran’s capital, Tehran, to take part in a television interview. He then planned to travel to Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, to take a boat to Qatar.
According to ESPN, Sánchez’s parents reported him as missing on 17 October.
‘After a few days, we did not worry about him not posting; it matched what he said,’ his mother said. ‘But after eight or nine days, my daughter and his closest friends, already began to think that we had to report his disappearance.’
According to ABC News, Spain’s Foreign Ministry said it had no information on Sánchez’s whereabouts, adding that the Spanish ambassador to Tehran was dealing with the matter.
Sánchez’s disappearance comes days amid widespread protests against the Iranian government, which were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in Tehran in September.
Picture: Santiago Sánchez/Instagram
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