Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi, an ex-footballer with a playboy reputation, has turned up in Niger, more than two weeks after his mother and three siblings sought refuge in Algeria.
The whereabouts of the deposed strongman and his most charismatic son, Seif al-Islam, however, remains a mystery three weeks after they went into hiding when rebel fighters overran Tripoli and captured large swathes of the country.
Col Gaddafi’s wife Safiya, two sons Mohammed and Hannibal and daughter Aisha escaped to neighbouring Algeria on August 29, leading to speculation that other family members would follow.
Saadi, however, followed other regime figures and officials in crossing the desert into Niger, arriving there on Sunday, according to the Niamey government.
Born in 1973, Saadi, Col Gaddafi’s third son, unsuccessfully tried a career in Italian football before heading an elite unit in the Libyan army.
In the initial weeks of the anti-Gaddafi uprising, Saadi was optimistic that his father would remain in power.
“My father would stay as the big father who advises,” he told the Financial Times in an interview in February. “After this positive earthquake, we have to do something for Libya,” he said. “We have to bring in new blood to govern our country.”
Saadi devoted part of his life to football.
He was captain of his national team and president of the Libyan football association and remained a grotesque symbol of ties between Libya and Italian football.
When he was 20, he trained with Italian clubs Juventus and Lazio. He remained a shareholder in Juventus, the legendary club by virtue of being the chairman of Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, which holds 7.5 per cent shares of Juventus which are now frozen.
He also tried to buy Lazio in 2002 after the collapse of Cirio food empire, which owned the club.
Too big, too slow, not strong enough technically, Saadi was not at the level required for the Italian first class division football but was recruited by Perugia in 2003 for marketing reasons.
He had barely kicked a ball when he was suspended by Perugia after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.
Those days he used to stay in a five-star hotel in the centre of the city, occupying an entire floor, with a suite for 20 people.
He made few friends in the Libyan national team either. “We felt hindered. He was still the son of the head of the state. He was not on equal footing,” goalkeeper Samir Abboud recalls, affirming that Saadi could not even pass a ball.
After anti-Gaddafi forces overran Tripoli, family albums dug up from Saadi’s seaside Tripoli chalet tell of Western nightclubs and luxury.
In the photos Saadi appears to live up to his reputation as a playboy. “I am forever grateful and blessed to have met you! May all your dreams in this New Year come true and keep doing what you are doing. It works. You can move mountains,” writes a New Yorker Linda, in a dedication to Saadi.
After he hung his football boots, Saadi made a career in the Libyan army, heading an elite military unit.
Despite the setbacks suffered by the Gaddafi forces in the initial weeks of the uprising, Saadi was unmoved and promised that any territory lost would be regained “sooner or later”.
“There are people protesting against my father’s rule, it is normal. Everybody needs to be free to express their opinion,” he told the Financial Times, downplaying the fact that many Libyan diplomats around the world had quit their posts.
“I don’t care about these guys,” Saadi said. “My diplomacy is to be honest and tell the truth.”
On August 21 he announced he was ready to give himself up “if my surrender stops the spilling of blood”.
Instead he fled to Niger.