Reza Parastesh was out driving in Hamedan Iran when people started stopping him in the steet and many photograph hunters were after a selfie, police got involved and had to stop the chaos to clear traffic and crowd’s surrounding him.
They impounded his car and took him to the station.
The resemblance between him and Lionel Messi is so uncanny that leading news outlets have used his photographs.
Reza Parasteshis, left is the spitting image of his sporting hero Lionel Messi pictured on the right.
The student was reluctant at first but has perfected his Lionel Messi look, and eventually grew into the role, wearing the Barcelona strip out in public and growing his hair and beard to match the footballer and carrying a ball around.
Reza Parastesh’s father started the whole furore by getting him to pose up as Lionel Messi with a number 10 Barcelona jersey.
They sent the pictures off to a sports website, and had an immediate reply asking them to quickly come in for an interview.
Reza is now fully booked with media interviews and has even landed himself modelling contacts.
His goal now is to meet his hero in Barcelona, and maybe even land a job as his understudy.
I could be his representative when he is too busy, Reza said.