Why all of England believes this Amir can

Post-Athens, 17-year-old Khan has been catapulted to a national role model. Recently, he was nominated for the UK’s Sports Personality of the Year award—the youngest nominee ever for the honour to be announced this month.

‘‘I came back home saying I wanted life to get back to normal. Now I realise things won’t be normal again. Even going out with friends is strange because people keep coming up and chatting and asking for autographs. My friends laugh at it all but to me, it’s still strange,’’ he says.

In fact, Khan’s personable approach has already made him a media darling. An exclusive interview he gave the Daily Mail carried the headline ‘The Boy King of Boxing’.

Some of his role model status also comes from the part he has played in healing cultural divisions in the north of England. Bolton, where Khan lives—the family moved there from Pakistan in the 1970s and Khan is one of four children—has been simmering with racial tension in the past few years.

Yet during the Olympics, his father Shajaad demonstrated his loyalty by wearing a Union Jack waistcoat.

This encouraged many of the white northern viewers watching the Games in pub televisions to cheer on ‘‘our boy Amir’’.

Not that Khan and his family have lost any of their roots whatsoever. Raised in a strict Muslim household, the teenager does not drink or party, regularly visits a mosque and prays before every fight.

And thankfully, Khan is still grounded enough to retain a sense of perspective.

When he walked past a kebab shop in Bolton after returning from Athens, he was delighted, if surprised, to see the effects of his fame. ‘‘They were advertising Khan’s Kebabs,’’ he said, with a pleased grin. ‘‘Kebabs named after me. I couldn’t believe it.’’