Celebrities’ lookalike is not a new thing but when it comes to landing someone in jail makes it a news. A student in Iran Reza Parastesh who looks exactly the same as his football hero Lionel Messi almost landed in jail for disrupting public order this week.
People in the western city of Hamedan gathered in a huge number to take selfies with Parastesh. This had forced the police to take action against him and impound his car in order to clear traffic and chaos.
The duplicate Messi is so much similar to the real one that Eurosport UK accidently used his image on Twitter instead of the real Messi.
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This whole thing started a few months back when Parastesh’s father (who is crazy about football) forced his son to wear the same number 10 Barcelona jersy as wore by the really Messi. Then he sent the pictures to a sports website.
“I sent them one night and by the morning they had called me and said I should come in quickly for an interview,” he said.
Parastesh didn’t like the idea at first but soon he grew into his new role, cutting his hair like Messi and often donning the Barca jersey when he goes out. At this time, he is not less than a celebrity as he is fully booked with interviews and all are rushing towards him for modelling contracts.
“Now people really see me as the Iranian Messi and want me to mimic everything he does. When I show up somewhere, people are really shocked,” Parastesh said.
“I’m really happy that seeing me makes them happy and this happiness gives me a lot of energy,” he further added.
Parastesh is also a football lover but has never played is professionally. But now he is learning some tricks so he can better play the role.
Lastly he said that he wants to meet his hero in Barcelona and maybe even land a job as his understudy. “Being the best player in footballing history, he definitely has more work than he can handle. I could be his representative when he is too busy,” he said.
With inputs from PTI.
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