Fan walking 4,500 miles from Spain to Qatar for the World Cup feared missing in Iran

A Spanish man moving from Madrid to Doha, Qatar, for the 2022 World Cup has not been heard from since the day after he entered Iran three weeks ago, his family said Monday.

A veteran trekker, former paratrooper and avid football fan, Santiago Sanchez was last seen in Iraq after hiking through 15 countries and extensively sharing his journey on a popular Instagram account over the past nine months.

The 41-year-old had previously said his intention for his trip to Qatar was to learn about how others lived before reaching the Arab world’s first host nation of the World Cup, in time for Spain’s first game on November 23.

The Real Madrid fan is in the final stages of a mammoth walk from Madrid to Doha in Qatar

In this image capture from a video, the 41-year-old speaks to The Associated Press on a street in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq on Sept. 28. He has not been heard from since he entered Iran

In this photo, the Sanchez Cogedor family, Sanchez poses with his sister Natalia

Sanchez’s parents look at a photo of their son on a phone at their home in Henches, Spain

“The idea of ​​the trip is to motivate and inspire other people to show that they can go very far with very little,” he told the AP from Sulaymaniyah, a Kurdish city in northeastern Iraq.

However, Sanchez’s family last heard from him in an audio message on Oct. 2, a day after he crossed the Iraq-Iran border. He planned to go to the Iranian capital Tehran, where a television station wanted to interview him. His next move would have been Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, where he would travel to Qatar by boat.

“We’re very worried, we can’t stop crying, my husband and I,” his mother, Celia Cogedor, told The Associated Press.

Sanchez’s parents reported him missing on October 17, and they said Spanish police and diplomats were helping the family.

Sanchez traveled to Qatar on foot ahead of Spain’s first game of the tournament

Sanchez’s disappearance sparks fear over his fate in a country ravaged by mass unrest

Sanchez is smiling in this undated family photo on the condition that the Sanchez Cogedor family

“After a few days, we weren’t worried that he wouldn’t post; it matched what he had said. But after eight or nine days, my daughter and his best friends… we were already starting to think we should report his disappearance,” his mother said.

Spain’s foreign ministry said it had no information on Sanchez’s whereabouts, adding that the Spanish ambassador to Tehran was handling the matter. Calls to Iran’s foreign ministry for comment were not immediately answered.

In his latest Instagram post, Sanchez shared photos from his last stop in northern Iraq, saying he “spent the night there before crossing over to Iran, where a family is waiting for me who found out about my trip and they wanted to share a day.” with me.’

He then ended the post with: “Travel but run away from nothing and less from yourself. Lose yourself to find yourself.’

Sanchez previously spent time in Iran in 2019, when he cycled a similar route to get from Madrid to Saudi Arabia.

“He has made no propaganda, neither for nor against any situation,” his parents added. “The only thing that moves him is supporting Real Madrid – and running to get to the World Cup in Qatar on time.”

The 41-year-old is an experienced trekker, former paratrooper and avid football fan

Santiago Sanchez Sr, his concerned father, shows a phone with a family photo of his son