FENG: Abdul Baset al-Sarout, they say. Al-Masri is next to me. He's carrying a worn, spiral-bound A4 notebook - the notebook where he handwrote most of the first songs al-Sarout sang.

FENG: Abdul Baset al-Sarout, they say. Al-Masri is next to me. He's carrying a worn, spiral-bound A4 notebook - the notebook where he handwrote most of the first songs al-Sarout sang.

FENG: Abdul Baset al-Sarout, they say. Al-Masri is next to me. He's carrying a worn, spiral-bound A4 notebook - the notebook where he handwrote most of the first songs al-Sarout sang.

The Syrian soccer player Abdel Basset Al-Sarout became the poster child for the Syrian revolution with his iconic protest anthems. In death, he has become its saint. But he didn't do it alone.

FENG: Abdul Baset al-Sarout, they say. Al-Masri is next to me. He's carrying a worn, spiral-bound A4 notebook - the notebook where he handwrote most of the first songs al-Sarout sang.

NPR's Emily Feng recently wrapped up a reporting trip to Syria, and as Syrians celebrated the end of Bashar al-Assad's regime, she kept seeing one man's face everywhere. She wanted to know who he was, ...