Reza Parastesh is an Iranian young man who has been very popular and famous these days due to his resemblance to Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi.
“During my adolescence, everyone who saw me said “how much you look like Messi!”, to the extent that my family members and friends were calling me ‘Messi’.
Reza did not take this seriously, until his family asked him to send his photo to the media, where he encountered strange reactions; “now it’s been a while I have accepted that I really look like Messi," he gave a laugh.
Wearing Argentine and Barcelona’s soccer jerseys, Reza sent his photo to Varzesh3 sports news website, at the suggestion of his father, 5 months ago.
“I sent the photo at night and they called me at 10, tomorrow morning and invited me to their office and took numerous photos and videos of me which incited different reactions among people,” Reza said.
Reza added that he has never done any surgery and wears no makeup to look like Messi; “I only trim my beard like him. I hope Messi cut his beard again until it proves to everyone that I really look like him; we even look alike in our childhood photos and have exactly the same height,” Reza added with a laugh.
After Reza becomes famous, a new chapter opens in his life; “Now I'm playing in a comedy series, which I think is a very interesting event.”
About his exciting meeting with Spanish professional footballer Xavier Hernández Creus in Iran, Reza said "It was very interesting. When Xavi got off the bus and saw me, he called me ‘Iranian Messi’ and gave me his shirt; a club wanted to pay 60 million tomans to buy the shirt, but I framed it and hanged it on the wall in my room."
Reza is very happy to have a twin face of the best soccer player; “I'm so glad I look like the best soccer player in the history of the world. Messi is a very important person; I would have looked like the world's biggest killer Hitler, but I resemble a cool and popular guy like Messi.”
Reza has many memories of his strange similarity to Messi; “My father is a passionate footballer who is a fan of Real Madrid as well; during World Cup 2014, Iran lost 1-0 to Argentine after last minute goal of Messi; my father called me and said don’t come home this night and many of my friends told me swear words because of Messi,” Reza laughs.
Reza also points to his another interesting memory in his cousin's café in Sweden, when he wears Messi’s shirt and enters the place with his body guards, all the people there thought he is really Messi; “they were excited and we were afraid something bad may happen and immediately announced on the speaker that I am Messi’s doppelganger and the show was a joke.”
Reza adds it could have been really dangerous since Messi would sue because it was considered a misuse of the name.
Reza has searched a lot to see if Messi has other doppelgangers; “After many probes I realized Messi has no look-alike and I’m the only double of Messi."
Reza hopes to meet Messi in person; “I tried to send messages to Messi many times, but I recognized it’s useless; I think Xavi has told him he has an Iranian doppelganger.”
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