Messi seeks to meet Afghan boy in plastic jersey

The family live in the Jaghori District, in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

Murtaza Ahmadi sparked a social media storm when he was photographed wearing a plastic bag “Argentina” jersey with Messi’s name on it.

Murtaza is a dedicated Lionel Messi fan.

Murtaza went viral after a picture of him in an improvised Lionel Messi jersey went around the web as people tried to find out who he was and send him a real shirt, and now he is set to meet his hero.

“My greatest desire is to meet Messi one day, to learn from him and become a football star like him one day”, five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi told Xinhua on Saturday.

His elder brother Homayoun, 15, made him the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook in mid-January.

He also said: “I want my son to become a good football player in the future and become the Messi of Afghanistan”.

According to reports, the Afghanistan Football Federation has been in touch with Messi’s camp about arranging a meeting between the two.

“The management of the [AFF] has received emails from Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona regarding the meeting”, a representative Syed Ali Kazemi was quoted as telling the news agency EFE.

Reports now say the football star has been in communication with the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) to set up a meeting with the 5-year-old Murtaza.

“He asked me to buy him a Messi jersey but I am a farmer and could not afford it”, Mohammad Arif Ahamdi, a father of six, said.

“I love Messi. He plays well”.

“We do not have a football playground near our house, and the only ball I have is punctured”.