Little Afghan boy soon meet Lionel Messi, Afghan official

Afghan football officials are hoping to facilitate a meeting between Lionel Messi and Murtaza Ahmadi, who became an internet sensation after he was pictured with a Messi shirt made out of a plastic bag. The photos published on the website were accompanied by an announcement from the federation’s spokesman, Sayed Ali Kazemi, which asked Messi’s representatives to hopefully arrange the meeting.

Fans across the globe were moved by the image of a five-year-old Afghan boy wearing a “Messi 10” shirt, with it becoming viral as people tried to engineer a meeting between a young child and his idol.

The toddler, whom reports have identified as Murtaza Ahmadi, is such a huge fan of the Argentinian footballer that he fashioned this “T-shirt” for himself out of a plastic bag.

Murtaza’s father, a poor farmer in Ghazni’s Jaghori district, admitted he could not afford to buy him a replica jersey, adding that Murtaza only had a punctured ball to play with.

Now word of Murtaza’s story has got to the Barcelona star, whose agent has contacted his family and agreed to meet him. Now, it appears that Messi is fond of the kid and is planning to meet with him and personally give him a real jersey. “I want to become like him”.

Meanwhile, Martaza keeps working on his soccer skills, kicking around with members of the Afghan national team on Tuesday – still wearing his plastic bag shirt. He did the same a year later with a Brazilian boy who was born without feet.

The Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) on Monday said Messi was keen to meet Murtaza as soon as possible, though no date or venue has so far been finalised.