His face was still juvenile and the number 10 he sports in the news agency photo that announced his death may have expressed his hope.
That of breaking into football, a universal sport.
And then hope was shattered on Monday when the Taliban arrived at the gates of the city.
Zaki Anwari is one of the thousands of people who have decided to rush to the airport in an attempt to take a plane and flee an inevitable regime change.
He tried, like others, to cling to the end of the American military planes which flew in the middle of the crowd. Several versions are given as to the circumstances of his death. According to the Afghan news agency Ariana, he was killed when he fell from a USAF Boeing C-17. According to the International Sports Press Association, he died after getting caught in one of the panels that make up the landing gear. These panels close when the wheels retract on take-off, which would have prevented Zaki Anwari from hanging on to the plane. The aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Qatar, where its lifeless body was identified. This story was taken up by the Afghan Directorate General of Physical Education and Sports.
One of the people who fell from a USAF Boeing C-17 at Kabul airport on Monday was this young Afghan footballer Zaki Anwari, a member of the Aghan National football team.
Just heartbreaking :( pic.twitter.com/giCrm9Kv89
- Tahir Imran Mian ✈ (@TahirImran) August 19, 2021
Zaki Anwari was part of the national junior football team.
He was only 19 years old.
"May his soul rest in peace and be remembered," wrote on Facebook Ali Askar Lali, who led Afghanistan in the early 2000s.