'How I was trafficked to UK as a child' - Olympic champion Mo Farah's 'shocking' revelation

Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah, popularly known as Mo Farah is the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals.

Farah's ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) makes him the most successful male track distance runner ever, and he is undisputedly the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.

However, the 39-year-old legend has revealed that he was trafficked to the United Kingdom three decades ago as a child under a false name.

“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name, or it’s not the reality,” Farah said in a BBC documentary that is set to be released on Wednesday, July 13.

Farah's stunning disclosure has now had a significant effect on his life story.

The Somali-born athlete is one of Britain’s most famous sportsmen globally.

Farah's latest revelation has also raised questions about his actual citizenship status in a country plagued by immigration issues as well as political conflict in recent years.

“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 U.K.,” Farah said in clips of the documentary that were released by the BBC on Monday.

In the documentary, Farah said he was separated from family after his father was killed during Somalia’s civil war.

He was brought to Britain at age 9, with a woman under the name of another child - Mohamed Farah.

“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and right in front of me ripped them up and put it in the bin and at that moment I knew I was in trouble,” he said.

He thought he would be going to stay with relatives, but was eventually forced into domestic service.

“If I wanted food in my mouth, my job was to look after those kids, shower them, cook for them, clean for them,” Farah said.

“And she said, ‘If you ever want to see your family again, don’t say anything. If you say anything, they will take you away." he added.

Years later, when he was enrolled in school, Farah told his gym teacher, Alan Watkinson, about his real identity. He was placed in the care of a friend’s mother.

In July 2000, Farah was granted British citizenship under the name Mohamed Farah, according to the BBC.

He would go on to become one of Britain’s greatest sports heroes.

The 39-year-old Somalian- born star also said he was putting his citizenship at risk by sharing his story.

However, Britain’s government have immediately eased his fears with a spokesperson for the Home Office revealing in a statement on Tuesday that no action would be taken against Farah and “to suggest otherwise is wrong.”

Farah was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 and has competed in major marathons across the globe since his brief retirement in 2017.

Farah also set a national record after winning the 2018 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2 hours 5 minutes 11 seconds.

He recently announced that he will run this year’s London Marathon on October 2, which would be his first marathon since 2019.