Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and his five-year-old fan from Afghanistan, Murtaza Ahmadi. AP/AFPA five-year-old Lionel Messi fan from Afghanistan is set to earn a visit from the legendary footballer himself, according to reports.
Murtaza Ahmadi, living in an insurgency-prone area, became an online sensation after photos of him dressed in an improvised Messi jersey - made out of a plastic bag - went viral.
Murtaza idolises the Argentina star but a jersey of his favourite player is beyond the means of his poor family in rural Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul.
Hence, his elder brother Homayoun, 15, made him a plastic bag jersey of Argentina with Messi's name and squad number scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos on Facebook two weeks ago.
"Our neighbour had thrown away grocery bags and Murtaza brought me one to make a Messi jersey," Homayoun, a high school student and himself a Barcelona fan, told AFP.
The photos garned widespread attention on social media, and now it appears Murtaza would get to meet Messi.
The Afghan Football Federation (AFF) has now received e-mails from Messi and his club FC Barcelona regarding the meeting, the federation's spokesman, Syed Ali Kazemi, told EFE.
The boy, who lives in a remote village in war-torn Ghazni province, will have his dream come true, the AFF spokesman added.
Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, Murtaza's father who works as a farmer, admitted he could not afford to buy his son a replica jersey, said he only had a punctured ball to play with in his village in Taliban-infested Ghazni.
Ahmadi said he hopes that his son turns into a great football player one day.
"I want my son to become the Messi of Afghanistan," he told AFP.
"Murtaza wants to meet Lionel Messi in person one day. He asked me to buy him a jersey but I cannot afford it," Ahamdi, a father of six, said.
Young Murtaza is a huge fan of Messi and aspires to be like him when he grows up.
"We do not have a football playground near our house and the only ball I have is punctured," Murtaza told AFP.
"I love Messi, he plays really well, and I love the shirt my brother made for me."
Kicking the deflated football in his snow-covered village, he added: "I want to be like Messi when I grow up."
When his photos were first posted, Internet users scrambled to identify the boy and it was initially claimed he was an Iraqi Kurd.
But Murtaza's uncle Azim Ahmadi, who lives in Australia, revealed to the media that his nephew was the unwitting star of the story.
His father only learned about Murtaza's newfound fame from relatives when he recently visited Kabul for medical treatment.
Sport was rarely played under Taliban rule, and the football stadium in Kabul was a notorious venue for executions, stonings and mutilations.
Football and cricket are the two most popular sports in the war-ravaged country.
Jorge Messi, Lionel's father, had earlier told AFP that the footballer was aware of the photos that made waves on social media and "wants to do something" for his young fan.
(with agency inputs)
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