Santiago Sánchez disappears while walking from Spain to Qatar for the World Cup
There is no news of Santiago Sánchez, who aims to walk from his country to Qatar to support Spain in the 2022 World Cup, which will start in November.
Sánchez’s family said on Monday there was no news from Sánchez, who intended to walk from Madrid to Doha for the World Cup, after crossing into Iran three weeks ago.
The veteran hiker, former paratrooper and avid soccer fan has traveled to 15 countries in the last nine months. Sharing his trip with his followers on his Instagram account, Sanchez was last seen in Iraq. Sánchez, 41, has previously said that the purpose of his trip to Qatar is to catch up on Spain’s first match on November 23 and learn how others live before the first World Cup in the Arab world comes to the host country.
HE WAS GOING TO TEHRAN FOR AN INTERVIEW
“The purpose of the trip is to motivate and inspire other people to show that they can go further with very little,” he said in an interview in the Iraqi city of Sulaimani. he said.
However, the last time Sánchez’s family heard from the Spanish protester via voicemail was on October 2, a day after he crossed the border between Iraq and Iran. It was learned that Sánchez, who said that a television channel wanted to interview him, plans to travel to Tehran, the capital of Iran. His next stop would be Bandar Abbas, the southern port of Iran, from where he would travel by ship to Qatar.
HE WENT TO SAUDI ARABIA BY BIKE
His mother, Celia Cogedor, said: “My wife and I are deeply concerned. We can’t stop crying,” she shared her sadness. Sánchez’s family filed a missing persons report on October 17 and said Spanish police and diplomats had helped.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry announced that it had no information on Sánchez’s whereabouts and that the Spanish ambassador in Tehran was interested in the matter.
Sánchez had cycled a similar route from Madrid to Saudi Arabia in 2019 and crossed Iran.
ALSO PASSED THROUGH TURKEY
Sánchez arrived in Istanbul a week after entering Turkey on July 12. Interviewed with some YouTube channels, Sanchez joined the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Environmental Cleanup Awareness Organization on August 4.