Santiago Sanchez, a Spanish die-hard football fan trekking from Madrid to Doha, Qatar, for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has reportedly gone missing in Iran, his family confirmed on Monday.

Sanchez, who is an experienced trekker and a former paratrooper embarked on the adventure ahead of Spain opening Group E game of the World Cup on November 23, but his whereabouts has not been known since the day he crossed into Iran three weeks ago.

The 41-year-old adventurer had hiked over 15 countries over the past nine months while sharing the details of his journey on an Instagram account before he went missing amid unrest in Iran.

Sanchez, whose safety is a concern for his family, given the current crisis in Iran, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police, was last seen in Iraq.

The death of Ms Amini has sparked a wide range of protests in the Middle East country.

His family said they last heard from him on October 2, a day after he crossed the Iraq-Iran border.

“We are deeply worried, we can’t stop crying, my husband and I,” his mother, Celia Cogedor, told The Associated Press.

Before crossing to Iran, Sanchez had already notified his parents that communication wouldn’t be easy compared to the previous months.

His mother added: “After a few days we didn’t worry about him not posting, it matched what he had said. But after eight or nine days, my daughter and his closest friends…we already began to think that we had to report his disappearance.”

According to the parents, authorities in Spain are currently helping the family in search for Sanchez’s whereabouts after reporting him missing to Spain’s police and diplomats on October 17.

VOA confirmed that Spain’s Foreign Ministry said the Spanish ambassador to Tehran is handling the matters.