Simon Hunter
A SPANISH football fan who is trying to walk from Spain to Qatar to see the World Cup could be in an Iranian jail. That’s according to the Iran International television channel, which reported that Santiago Sánchez Cogedor may have been arrested along with his translator while making the epic journey.
Santiago left his home in the Madrid city of Alcalá de Henares on January 8, according to Spanish daily El Mundo, and was trying to reach Qatar in the first week of November.
But his family lost contact with him on October 2, when he was in the Kurdish area of Iraq, some five kilometres from the border with Iran.
Sánchez, who was previously in the military, was planning on contributing to social causes along his journey through Europe and Asia, in particular those related to the environment.
A friend of Sánchez, a man named Miguel Bergado, told El Mundo that the last message sent by the football fan read: “This is hot, but everything’s OK.” Bergado believes that Sánchez was referring to the political situation in the country, which has been rocked by a series of demonstrations by women who are protesting against the Iranian government.
“My feeling is that because of the political issues they have stopped him or detained him in Iran because he is from abroad, until the situation calms down,” Bergado told the newspaper.
Read more:
- Former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas keeps quiet on alleged ‘hack’ of Twitter account
- Spain and Portugal welcome Ukraine to joint bid to host football’s World Cup finals in 2030
