Lionel Messi has an Iranian Doppleganger

Barcelona superstar, Lionel Messi, almost landed himself a jail sentence in Iran. Or at least, I thought it was him at first. Turns out an Iranian student is the spitting image of the footballer.

Reza Parastesh when put side by side to Lionel Messi makes it difficult to tell the difference between the two. It’s mostly the windswept hair and beard that does it, but at first glance you can’t tell the difference.

Reza poses with a fan. (Image: Mirror)

Doppleganger

He decided to take a stroll around his home town of Hamedan in his full Barcelona kit – grabbing quite a bit of attention. Fans thought the Barcelona star was visiting the country, and couldn’t contain themselves. Unfortunately for Reza, he almost landed himself a bit of jail time in the act. The student was slightly inundated by people asking for photos, to the point the Iranian fuzz swiped him away and cleared the hyped crowd and traffic.

The real Messi, for a bit of comparison (Image: Mirror)

Sometimes, hero worship can be taken a bit too far. However, Reza seems to quite enjoy the attention he receives, and says it’s good to see he makes others happy. He’s even attempting to pick up some serious football skills to go along with his look.

Source: Mirror