Mo Farah, who happens to be the most successful male track runner ever, has come up with shocking revelations about his illegal trafficking to the UK as a child. The 10 global championships gold medal holder (four Olympics and six world titles) says that he was flown over from East African country, Djibouti, aged nine, by an unknown woman. He was later made to look after another family’s children, and work as a domestic servant. Most shocking of all, he has revealed that his name isn’t even Mohammad Farah but Hussein Abdi Kahin.
Talking to the BBC, he said, “For years I just kept blocking it out, but you can only block it out for so long.” In the documentary titled The Real Mo Farah, the 39-year-old said, “Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality.
“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.
“When I was four my dad was killed in the civil war, you know as a family we were torn apart.”
Mo Farah gives a lot of credit to his PE teacher Mr Watkinson who contacted social services and helped him apply for British citizenship. Farah was soon fostered by another Somali family.
“I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better. I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me. That’s when Mo came out – the real Mo.”
I want to feel normal: Mo Farah
The reason for this revelation, as Mo Farah says are his children.
“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that. That’s the main reason in telling my story because I want to feel normal and don’t feel like you’re holding on to something,” he added.
