Moroccan international player Mounir El Haddadi, the former Barcelona star who currently plays for the Iranian club Esteghlal, found himself trapped inside Iran following air strikes carried out by the United States and Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Spanish news sources explained that the player had boarded the plane in preparation for departure, but the attack led to the closure of airspace and a complete halt to air traffic, which required him to be removed from the plane and returned to the airport, where he awaited finding other solutions.
According to what the Spanish newspaper “AS” reported, “Al-Hadadi” and other players headed towards the Turkish border through the city of Bazargan, located in northern Iran, on an exhausting land journey that takes about 11 hours, in an attempt to overcome the current situation after it was not possible to travel by air.
Al-Haddadi was not alone in this difficult situation. At Tehran Airport, Spanish coaches Pepe Losada and Emilio Alvarez, who work for Persepolis Club, were surprised by the closure of the airport immediately upon their arrival from Isfahan. This military escalation led to the cancellation of all sporting events at the last minute, as foreign athletes attempted to leave the country.
On the other hand, luck was on the side of Spanish goalkeeper “Antonio Adan,” a teammate of “Al-Haddadi” in the Esteghlal team, as he was able to leave Iran on Friday, taking advantage of the leave that the club granted to the players, a few hours before the airspace was closed.
