TEHRAN: Iranian student Reza Parastesh looks so much like his sporting hero Lionel Messi that it almost landed him in jail for disrupting public order this week.

So many people came out to take selfies with Parastesh in the western city of Hamedan over the weekend that police rushed him into a station and impounded his car to stop the chaos and clear traffic.

The resemblance is so uncanny that Eurosport UK reportedly used his photo by accident on Twitter recently when talking about the real Messi.

The furore began a few months ago when Parastesh's football-mad father pressured the 25-year-old into posing in a number 10 Barcelona jersey and sending the pictures to a sports website.

"After the game, my dad called me and said don't come back home tonight... why did you score a goal against Iran? I said: But that wasn't me!" Parastesh said, laughing.

His goal now is 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.